One of the most popular was for online shopping services. Many people who’ve lived overseas will have used services like Amazon, Apple online, eBay and if they’ve lived in South Africa they’ll know about bidorbuy. All these services allow you to buy online and have goods delivered to your doorstep. More importantly perhaps, many supermarket chains in Europe and the USA now deliver, following online orders and that’s transformed the way many people live their lives. No longer are they forced to go to the shops when the shops will now come to them. In fact there is one store in Gaborone that does now offer online ordering so there’s been some progress. More would be better though.
Also on the electronic front people said they wanted something like Uber, the cellphone-based taxi-ordering service that operates in many European and American cities, now even in Johannesburg and Cape Town. It was news to me when someone pointed out that a local taxi company already does this, having developed an app for your phone that allows you to order a taxi and then to track its progress towards you. The only difference between that and Uber is that you still have to pay your Gaborone taxi driver with cash, unlike Uber where the payment is made online. But again, it’s a very good beginning. Some suggestions were slightly more ambitious and perhaps therefore less achievable. A total overhaul of the public transport system in Botswana might be a challenge. New rail systems to the airport and throughout Gaborone might take more effort than we can muster.
