Awaiting the delivery of the national budget is on its own an emotionally engaging and sad process to the masses who deem the state as the provider of the much-needed panacea for their embarrassing socio-economic hardships. To many Batswana, Matambo is the only messiah who can lead the poor masses through the red sea as Moses did with the Israelites, from Egypt to the Promised Land of Canaan. Indeed the world is facing very cruel and excruciating economic hardships but still in the midst of all that, Botswana Trade Unions (BTU) is expecting Matambo to deliver a budget with a human face - a budget that takes the welfare of the masses into account. We need a budget that will help Batswana realise and live the dream of the so much prophesied and marketed national concept of dignity. Dignity will never prevail if the masses continue to be subjected to a legacy of socio-economic hardships. To start with, BTU is expecting the minister to speak loudly and rationally to the issue pertaining to the workers and their welfare as the drivers of the economy. It is an open secret that the workers of this country are disgruntled, as evidenced by the historic public service strike of last year. It is our hope as BTU that the minister will not leave anything to chance but rather should come up with some modalities which will try to ameliorate the problems associated with the welfare of workers as essential drivers of the economy. Above all, he also has to pronounce how he is going to create jobs for Batswana - we do not expect unhelpful comments on Namola Leuba since that on its own is not a sustainable venture and beside that it only caters for just a few in the marginalised populace.
Secondly, education is central to the development of any serious nation-state. The national budget should commit a good batch of its resources to the development of concrete and sustainable education which will produce vibrant and self-reliant graduates. We ought to hear Matambo making a pronouncement on how he intends to use education to help Batswana escape poverty. In order for us to have great teachers, we should avail resources and facilities to them which will make them function productively. The budget should unveil how opportunities for further training will be made as well as upgrading the education system to produce graduates who can function independently without having to rely on someone to hire them for meager salaries. Most teachers today have lost confidence in their profession and are tortured by unconducive environments of operations which are worsened by poor salaries. We ought to hear the minister addressing issues to do with the public service salaries and their welfare in general. The budget should also indicate modalities put in place to make colleges and universities more accessible to Batswana especially since higher education is an economic imperative.
