Boko dismisses Khama�s tenure in office
Innocent Selatlhwa | Thursday November 9, 2017 09:01
Responding to the State of the Nation Address delivered by Khama on Monday, Boko said the President failed to develop targets that would define success in any financial year, the National Development Plans and the long- term Vision.
“President Khama took office on 1st April 2008, about eight years to the end of the Vision 2016 cycle. He defined his approach to the management of the nation’s affairs in terms of five principles: Democracy, Development, Dignity, Discipline and Delivery.
“The President and his government have neglected, refused and failed to provide these marks and measures.
This much we know. It is a fact and reality that jeers at President Khama and should haunt him well into his old age and indeed for the rest of his life,” Boko said.
Boko, who is also the Leader of Opposition (LoO), said as the UDC they will measure the performance of their government, not by what it has done or how much it has spent, but rather by the changes it has made in people’s lives and the extent to which it has laid the foundation for sustainable prosperity.
“We are interested in the numbers and proportions of people who are lifted out of poverty and vulnerability to poverty, the number of decent jobs created, growth in average real wages and household incomes more generally, the inequality reduced and inclusion achieved.
We want discernible improvement in the overall quality of life of citizens and their enjoyment of basic human rights and freedoms,” Boko said. He said the UDC wants to see educational performance rising, access to quality basic education universalised, and the quality of institutions and the public’s trust and confidence in them growing.
Boko slammed Khama for not making a positive impact as President. “You will bequeath to your successor an economy whose growth is slow, jobless, pro-rich and fragile due in part to slow progress on the diversification of both the economy and markets, and weak external competitiveness.
“You are handing over an economy in worse shape than you found it in 2008. Whilst we appreciate the positive sovereign credit rating, this macro level indicator should not take our focus from the economy’s dismal performance at the microeconomic level, where firms and households are facing difficult odds,” he said.
Boko further said business closures have become all too common, household incomes are depressed, real wages are declining, household debt is rising, the ranks of the unemployed are swelling, vulnerability to poverty is growing, and a growing share of the population has become virtually dependent on the safety net, Ipelegeng.