ESP facts and figures still unpacked

Mmegi Editor | Tuesday November 10, 2015 16:21

The programme has triggered curiosity among citizens who want to know how it will improve their lives, how it will reduce the effects of unemployment, as well as improve the state of our infrastructure.

The President announced that the economy is expected to grow by just over four percent, far below what the government had hoped for.

In general, the ideas contained in the program are a good direction, and will only require dedicated manpower to implement and bring desired outcomes. The unfortunate thing about yesterday’s address was failure to unpack the ESP – how much is going to be required to implement it; in how many months or years, and how many jobs this is going to create.

On a positive note, the President announced the proposed introduction of Close Circuit Television (CCTV) patrolling of Gaborone streets by the Botswana Police Service.

This is an overdue project that should have been introduced five years or a decade ago to complement the efforts made by the police officers. It should have come into being with the arrival of police helicopters seven years ago, which have improved the patrolling capacity by the police officers.  With CCTV cameras in place, we hope that the streets will become safe for law-abiding citizens. We hope that our properties will be safe as it will take just a few minutes for the police to apprehend suspected criminals with the guidance of their colleagues in the office.

 The CCTV system will also help as evidence in a court of law where sophisticated and experienced criminals often walk free because of inadequate evidence, due to contradictory statements from eye witnesses, inability of witnesses to identify the suspects, or lack of concrete evidence to link the suspect to the crimes.

We are confident that after it succeeds in Gaborone, the CCTV project will be rolled out to the second city of Francistown, which is also experiencing a population boom due to the rapid developments.

Of course the prayer for rain will go down memory lane as a sign that the nation is in crisis of water shortage due to lack of planning and natural disasters that are beyond our control. Let there be rain!

Today’s thought

'To this end, there has been a significant improvement over time in the incidence of violent and serious crimes (with 970 incidents recorded per 100,000 population)'

– Ian Khama SONA 2015