Author

Bakang Ntshingane
  • Did presidency architects equip office for a crisis?

    It is fair to posit that the presidency has seen and handled its fair share of crises. But I think the greatest of these has been a crisis within itself as an institution with utmost power and responsibility. The litmus test of an institution endowed...

  • Leveraging on cross-border infrastructure investments for growth

    A landlocked country like Botswana strives to use its geographic location as a transport and logistics hub to leverage growing regional trade and expand its portfolio as a land-linked pathway to the southern African market. This will require massive...

  • Mozambique's uncertainty: Implications for Botswana's place in the region

    This conflict-driven development and prospect of instability in the region challenges Botswana’s interests. President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s persistent adamance on immediate intervention is almost a revival of former president Sir Ketumile...

  • Masisi in desert geopolitics, emerging power aspirations

    The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has tested the country’s domestic resilience, as well as its ambitions for the role it desires to play in the emerging post-pandemic world. Like his predecessors, President Mokgweetsi Masisi is actively...

  • Diplomat-in-chief: How has COVID-19 shaped Masisi

    The world has since never been the same. The advent of the global health crisis coincided with President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s ascension to the presidency immediately after the 2019 elections. A year later, what defined Masisi’s foreign...

  • What regime change would mean for BDP, opposition

     The uncomfortable corner the ANC finds itself in reminds me of the same corner the BDP hovered over when its former Number 1 went ‘haywire’. These events evoke a sense of nostalgia for change in African politics, and for me as a...

  • President Masisi's Namibia problem: The case for 'Secret Diplomacy'

    In 2018, CIA director Mike Pompeo made a clandestine trip to Pyongyang to meet with Kim Jong-Un. Historically, and closer to home, ‘quiet’ backchannel diplomacy by international and regional actors were crucial in the transition of South...

  • After Capitol: Reflecting on our own morally impeachable politics!

    Even if we were to put morality and integrity aside, and vote on the basis of policy contribution and liberal debate of ideas, still, the outcome would be shameful. Nations fall, democracies regress. This is the nature of any human construct....

  • Civil society could make joint responses a reality

    Whether it is the HIV/AIDS pandemic, Ebola, or the global financial crisis, civil society groups have been there, advocating for civil rights, advancing the cause for indigenous and marginalised groups, or demanding action on gender-based violence...

  • Ian Khama's 'activism' requires honesty about his presidential legacy

    He was never a perfect President: a walking contradiction, full of paradoxes and now, stands as a polarising figure who has dedicated his post-presidency to political activism amongst other things he’s passionate about. As a young person who...

  • 'Greening Botswana's post-COVID-19 economic recovery

    There’s a need and an appetite for multidisciplinary and new-fangled approaches to usher in a new era of economic development. The era of the Asian Tigers and others demanded different. Today, those of us tracking behind have a different...

  • On Gaborone's foreign policy during COVID-19 and beyond

    The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and its broad impact on the country will require the presidency to radically rethink and review the strategic underpinnings and operational modalities of Botswana’s foreign policy. Chief amongst these...

  • A greater pandemic: An (un)open government!

    The debate dragged on for too long. This should have been a simple debate for President Mokgweetsi Masisi and his team, following the simple rules and format of the British Parliamentary style of debate. There were several burdens of proof to satisfy...

  • The economics of a pandemic vs. Matsheka's economics

    This is the nature of the pandemic economy: In the face of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic and following the declared state of public emergency, many parts of the country will be severely locked down and the state will curtail people’s ability to...

  • Pandemics and crises demand decisive leadership

    After his administration-imposed travel restrictions on all official government travels, the President defied his own administration’s move to contain the spread of the coronavirus and travelled to Namibia for President Hage Geingob’s...

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