A tale of two countries
Mqondisi Dube | Friday October 17, 2014 15:13
It is impossible to drive very far through the city without suddenly descending into squalor. Not far from the manicured roads devolved into stony gravel, burst sewers snake alongside the ramshackle houses that have a distinct appearance of being homemade. From businesspeople in shiny suits, the scene morphs into forlorn faces and the inevitable wood-fire smoke that is a reminder of the service delivery failure on this side of town.
It is this dichotomy that the government and its private sector partners are battling to erase, where extreme poverty and wealth co-exist in an uncomfortable homage to the inequality that has accompanied the Diamond Miracle.
The country finds itself battling an explosion in extreme wealth thanks to an economy driven by diamonds. But tucked below the glittering sight are stubborn pockets of poverty, which have remained a regular irritant since the 1966 independence. Botswana was rated one of the world’s five poorest countries when it attained independence from Britain but clawed its way up into a middle-income nation. The country is the world’s largest producer of diamonds by value and unemployment is stable in global terms at 17.8 percent. Economic growth has been maintained at double digits for over a decade. But a significant number has been left behind in the middle of this economic miracle.
The last available statistics indicate that about 19.6 percent of the population lives below the poverty datum line, with six percent surviving on just US$1 per day. Such data, together with a 2009 World Bank study labelling Botswana as the fifth most unequal country in the world, jacked government into making poverty eradication a national policy priority.
Counter-attacking poverty, the government initiated an ambitious Poverty Eradication Programme on which nearly P300 million (US$35 million) has been spent since 2009. In the midst of its humanitarian and socio-economic objectives, the programme’s unspoken objective is to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor, by uplifting those on or below the breadline.
The five-year programme has attracted nearly 10,000 mostly young people and has met varying success. Workshops continue to be conducted across the country to empower recipients, with one of the most highly publicised having been held in the desert sands of Qabo in May. The long-suffering villagers in Qabo are confident that the programme will achieve its intended results. Seven young women are among the optimists and have a sewing project they hope will make ends meet.
“We started this business to beat the extreme poverty here. We are confident of finding a market within the village and in Gaborone,” the group’s spokesperson, Gake Hans tells Mmegi. The youths, who were previously unemployed, received P10,000 to start their project, while across Qabo, three women and two men also own and run a bakery established out of the poverty eradication initiative. In the midst of the successes, however, there is criticism on the speed at which the project start-up funds are released under the programme. Poverty Eradication Programme spokesperson, Masego Ramakgathi says they are aware of such delays and are addressing the concerns.
The harshest criticism has come from opposition politicians who have slated the poverty eradication programme as the ruling party’s election gimmick.
Opposition politicians argue the current scheme is just another campaign gimmick. One vocal critic has been Gaborone mayor and Umbrella for Democratic Change parliamentary hopeful, Haskins Nkaigwa.
“People are given money when they do not qualify. We do not seem to have control over the resources allocated to us and directives are flowing everyday from central government to continue abusing public funds on this programme. People are given similar projects whilst residing in the same location,” he said in a previous full council meeting. Other critics of the programme argue that the millions spent could be better channelled towards creating sustainable employment. Tshiamo Mphoeng, a young woman in her 30s, says although she was initially upbeat, replica projects limit chances of success. “It is more about the same projects.
Who is going to buy from whom? Where is the market to sell their products? Did we revisit past schemes to analyse their success or failures?” she asks. However, government officials say the projects have benefited more than 34,884 family members and the success rate continues to rise.