Of cattle and AFCON...

Mmegi Editor | Monday May 29, 2023 06:00

As is their wont, such novel initiatives stoke robust if not emotive citizen debate. Some have said the cost to import comes at a time of other competing socio-economic imperatives and therefore, the decision is both expensive and untimely.

Others believe the purchase is an exercise in redundancy as the country’s beef pedigree is already world renowned and any spending should rather address challenges such as climate change adaptation.

There is another school of thought that says the potential benefits of the initiative will likely go the way of other well-meaning exercises i.e strangled by bureaucracy, inefficiency and corruption, with immeasurable outcomes and impact. For his part, President Mokgweetsi Masisi and his lieutenants, have vigorously defended the purchase, pointing out how it fits into strategies such as the RESET Agenda, the value chain enhancement, knowledge economy and economic diversification, with the attendant benefits of export development and job creation.

The cost of the cattle, including logistics to fly the animals in and veterinary services, is P25 million, according to Masisi, who has very publicly taken the lead on the initiative. In the same week, another initiative got Batswana talking loud and long; the P65 million paid to a consultant to submit the country’s bid to host the 2027 AFCON.

The two initiatives – the cattle and the AFCON – have the same difference, the same inherent weakness and one that threatens their adoption or impact. In both instances, the initiatives lack a robust communication strategy that guides those leading the programmes on how to clearly take Batswana on board, succinctly explain why nearly P100 million of their taxpayer's monies should be spent and what the tangible, measurable benefits will be. And what the pitfalls could possibly be.

In both instances, the “communication strategy” has simply been political leaders and their technocrats speaking at media briefings or launches to defend the expenditure and explain their desired outcomes. For a Republic built on the principle of therisanyo and taking citizens aboard the development agenda, for a government that has been frequently criticised for “over planning” and requiring numerous studies, assessments, consultants and benchmarking trips for the most trivial of initiatives, for an administration that has developed the most number of strategies and programmes since Independence – the development of the two initiatives in question is peculiar.

The lack of a communication strategy has left citizens in the dark, speculating in the absence of concrete, objective and sober information, ventilating their opinions – many of them badly informed – on any platform of expression available.

And, because both initiatives require the buy-in of the private sector and ordinary Batswana, the impact or outcomes of the spending is likely to be sub-optimal. A clear communication strategy, for instance, explains to a single mother in Hatsalatladi how the AFCON could benefit them or what a herdsman in Matobo should expect from the importation of cattle. Robust, even emotional, civic debate is necessary in a democracy, but the quality of this is enhanced by access to information, the provision of targets and measurable outcomes. Today’s thought

Freedom of choice is meaningless without knowledge.

- Neil Young