Mmegi

The right to food: Botswana’s unfulfilled promise

Basic needs: Quality nutrition is a perennial challenge throughout Africa PEOPLESIMAGES.COM
Basic needs: Quality nutrition is a perennial challenge throughout Africa PEOPLESIMAGES.COM

The country is debating the establishment of a Constitutional Court. Others want the right to health included in the Constitution, given the ongoing crisis. Mothers, meanwhile, are struggling just to simply feed their children. NNASARETHA KGAMANYANE writes

With food prices soaring and unemployment rampant, Olerato Montsho’s story is a stark reminder of Botswana's crippling food insecurity crisis."I'm forced to buy whatever is cheapest," says Montsho* her eyes welling up with tears. "My son is always sick, and I know it is because he is not eating right."

Montsho's plight is a familiar one in Botswana, where 49.4% of the population faces moderate to severe food insecurity. The country's reliance on imports and lack of investment in local agriculture has worsened the problem over the years.

Editor's Comment
Public servants deserve better than union infighting

‘The strongest bond of human sympathy outside the family relation should be one uniting working people of all nations and tongues and kindreds’.- Abraham LincolnUntil then, the Council’s operations remain suspended, delaying critical decisions affecting thousands of public sector employees.The current standoff is between the Manual Workers Union on one side and the Six Cooperating Trade Unions, namely BONU, BOPEU, BTU, BDU, BOSETU and...

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