Study shows Batswana alarmed at high unemployment
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Thursday January 18, 2018 13:00
According to the Afrobarometer survey dated January 11, 2018, among the varied challenges confronting developing countries, unemployment consistently ranks near the top; across 36 African countries the Afrobarometer surveyed in 2014-2015, unemployment was the most frequently cited problem that citizens said their government should address.
The report that was compiled by Mogopodi Lekorwe, Kabelo Moseki, and Mokaloba Mokaloba states that in his final State of the Nation Address (SONA), delivered in November 2017, President Ian Khama offered a positive economic outlook for Botswana the country. The President cited a recovery of 4.3 percent growth in 2016 and a projected growth of 4.7 percent and 5.3 percent in 2017 to 2018.
It also states that while reporting some gains in employment and training programmes, he was less optimistic about job creation than he had been a year earlier, when he said “job creation (is)... increasingly linked to private sector growth, with government playing an enabling role”.
“Botswana does not escape the challenge of unemployment. In 2017, almost three-fourths (73%) of survey respondents cite a lack of jobs as one of the three most important problems that the government should address. Unemployment ranks well ahead of poverty/destitution (24%), education (21%), health (19%), food shortage (14%), and crime and security (13%), while overall management of the economy (10%) and other economic issues (10%) come lower on the priority list,” it stated.
It noted that the proportion of citizens who cite unemployment as a top problem increased by 15 percentage points from 2014. According to the study, for more than two decades now more than 50% of Batswana had expressed great concern over the high unemployment rate in the country.
The study shows that on 2004 66% of people bemoaned unemployment while on 2008 the percentage reduced to 64%. The numbers continued dropping from 57% to 58% from 2012 to 2018 respectively. However, in 2017 the percentage increased significantly to 73%.
The government of Botswana is the largest employer in the country. While some international financial institutions such as the World Bank have advised against further increasing the government’s wage bill, this does not diminish the expectations of the citizenry that the government creates employment.
“When asked how well or badly the government is doing in creating jobs, more than two in three Batswana (68%) say the government is failing on this front. Assessments are negative across major socio-demographic groups. While young respondents are less critical (61% say fairly/very badly) than their elders, citizens with post-secondary educational qualifications are considerably more likely to disapprove of the government’s performance on job creation (78%) than their less-educated counterparts.”
“By political-party affiliation, one supporters of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) are least critical (56%), while more than three-fourths of adherents of the Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) (86%), Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC+) (85%), and Botswana Congress Party (BCP) (78%) say the government is performing fairly/very badly,” it stated.
The study emphasised that ordinary citizens were generally positive in their assessments of the government’s performance on key economic issues – with the clear exception of job creation - which they view as the most important problem facing the country.