Mmegi

Smart subsidies and uncomfortable questions

Out of the loop: The country’s poorest would be better served by more streamlined subsidies and welfare programmes
Out of the loop: The country’s poorest would be better served by more streamlined subsidies and welfare programmes

Blanket subsidies mean a multimillionaire in Phakalane can technically pay the same for access to health, water, education and electricity as a villager living below the poverty line in Kutuku. In a constrained economy, hundreds of millions of Pula are wasted in noble, but misdirected support. As the P300 child grant kicks off, MBONGENI MGUNI & TIMOTHY LEWANIKA write

President Duma Boko recently threw down the gauntlet, challenging the nation to focus on solutions, rather than brilliantly describing problems. Here goes!

Earlier this week, the Minister of Local Government and Traditional Affairs, Ketlhalefile Motshegwa, confirmed that payouts of P300 per month under the child grant support scheme are scheduled to kick off.

Editor's Comment
The State apparatus must be sanitised

When the State cannot rely on its own machinery to pursue suspected wrongdoing, repairing that machinery must become a national priority.The establishment of a Special Investigations and Asset Recovery Task Force may help government respond to the immediate challenge. However, Botswana cannot afford to leave the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) and the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) struggling whilst building...

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