Budget 2017/18: Govt�s behemoth job creation task

All eyes on him: Matambo
All eyes on him: Matambo

As he does every year, Finance minister Kenneth Matambo takes to the podium in the National Assembly on Monday to share with Batswana how government plans to divide the national cake for this year.

But it will not be business as usual for the minister this time around, as the 2017-2018 Budget Speech comes on the heels of the country having experienced one of its worst socio-economic calamities due to the sector-wide job losses that characterised the second half of last year.

 While job creation has been entrenched in the thematic themes of previous budget speeches, which targeted inclusive growth, the nation will this time around expect Matambo to lay out a clear plan on how government plans to, at the minimum, replenish the jobs that were lost last year. 

Editor's Comment
Batswana need to do better to stop FMD

It is a clear signal that the government’s purse is empty and that our own behaviour has left veterinary officials fighting with one hand tied behind their backs. We have been here before. During COVID-19, many of us thought we knew better. We ignored simple rules, we carried on as if the danger was someone else’s problem, and the virus took lives and left our economy on its knees. We are still broke from that experience. Yet now, with FMD...

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