Boko attacks Khama on poverty alleviation

EPHRAIM KEORENG
Staff Writer | Wednesday November 10, 2010 00:00

 

Responding to President Ian Khama's State of The Nation Address, Boko said at a press conference in Tlokweng yesterday that the government is not serious about poverty alleviation.

He faulted Khama for saying that his government is determined to eradicate poverty because this is mere lip service. He said Khama's government is not involved in any poverty eradication measures. '...while talking poverty eradication, his Minister of Lands and Housing is busy repossessing plots from the same people who so desperately need resources to develop for residence.

We are left with no doubt, therefore, that His Excellency does not have the interests of people at heart,' he said.The BNF leader said the President, in pronouncing commitment towards poverty eradication, is merely expressing a moral commitment that has not been realised. He said the policies of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party government are internally inconsistent, incoherent and contradictory.

'If you recall, in the budget speech by his Minister of Finance in February this year, the government is recorded as pursuing a policy called National Strategy for Poverty Reduction. Quite clearly, the bulk of President Khama's address insofar as it makes any claims to addressing poverty is no more than evidence of confusion and muddled motives,' he said.

Boko said the President's address does not provide a solution to landlessness among Batswana. He said the Khama government and its predecessors have failed to appreciate land as an economic resource that Batswana must have and enjoy.

'It therefore does not surprise us that His Excellency's address is unable to favour us with statistics regarding how many people are still awaiting allocation of residential land by Land Boards and other agencies and how long the waiting periods are.

He fails to explain to us the reasoning and justification behind Minister Nonofo Molefhi's land grabbings when these poor people have been unable to develop (land) by reason that they are poor. He fails to appreciate that these poor people have not sold the land because they desire to develop the land for themselves and their children.

They are unable to develop because of their poverty and deprivation. This government pushes them further and deeper into poverty by its actions, programmes and policies,' he said.