Batswana hungry, jobless, poor, study says
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Wednesday October 15, 2014 16:32
“Unemployment rate is high in urban areas as compared to rural areas. In 2003, 25 percent of Batswana perceived their present living conditions to be fairly good compared to 20 percent in 2014 and they are not optimistic about the future in the next 12 months,” states the report.
Statistics Botswana’s latest figures show as many as 17.8 percent of employable Batswana who need a job remained unemployed in 2009/10.
The World Bank places the figure at 20.1 percent while the IMF says the figure could be as high as 30 percent if discouraged workers are factored in.
Discouraged workers are those who simply find no reason to go to work for various reasons such as low wages and poor working conditions. Up to 65 percent employable Batswana in urban areas complained about lack of employment. Significantly less – 58 percent – of semi-urban dwellers and 53 percent of rural dwellers expressed concern about unemployment, states the report.
The survey further shows that poverty and destitution – especially lack of food and water – remain a major problem, with 29 percent of the respondents fingering it. The highest proportion of those complaining about poverty and destitution are rural dwellers, as 35 percent of them complained about it. As much as 15 percent less of urbanites complained about poverty and destitution.
However, one of the researchers, Keneilwe Mooketsane said that the survey showed there was a decline in poverty and destitution.
This is corroborated by Statistics Botswana census results, which also shows the proportion of the population living below the poverty datum line (PDL) as having declined in 2009/10. Botswana’s PDL then, stood at 19.3 percent or about 373,000 from 500,000 in 2002/03. However, Mooketsane said since 2005, more than a third of Batswana have consistently reported shortages in cashflow income; 38 percent in 2008, 39 percent in 2012 and 37 percdent in 2014.
“This is very worrisome and it is a clear indication that most people are not employed. Twenty-three percent of the citizens in urban areas, 33 percednt in semi urban and 49 percent in rural areas have gone without a cash income many times and always in 2014,” she said.
The proportion of those complaining of low wages has doubled from seven percent in 2003 to 14 percent in 2014. “It is the economically active age groups (18-49 years) that feel the burden of low wages, income and salaries, with between 15 percent and 19 percent of them identifying this as an important problem,” she said The survey also identified that shortage of water is increasingly becoming a problem in all areas.
The percentage of people going without water for home use many times and always is on the rise, increasing from 11 percent in 2003 to 17 percent in 2014.