At the recent launching of David Magang’s second volume of Delusions of Grandeur, guest speaker, Dr Keith Jefferis, a former deputy governor of the Bank of Botswana, managing director of Econsult Botswana and one of the most, perhaps the most, respected economist, in the country remarked that ‘after lots of interaction with different government bodies, I have concluded that government doesn’t understand and trust the private sector. As a result it wishes to keep a tight grip on what companies do’.
Presumably resulting from this dismaying conclusion, Jefferis noted that, ‘many aspects of the business climate could be improved, often at little cost, by simple regulatory reform’ – implying that no effort is made to do so. He further noted that the current situation is ‘compounded by the anti-foreigner attitude that results in counter-productivity and that,’ the immigration point system has made matters worse’ because it is administered by people, ‘with a wrong attitude towards foreigners, who use the system to deport, and deny foreigners entry into the country.
