Essentially a snapshot of how government and the economy are performing across the various sectors and priorities, the Address, is also an opportunity, traditionally, to outline the government’s plans or responses to persistent and emerging challenges within the economy and the citizenry.In recent years, the latter function of the SONA has admittedly played second fiddle to the former, and the Address has become an opportunity for an administration to extol its achievements, as reported by the various line ministries and numerous departments. To his credit, Masisi broke from the pattern last year, dedicating the bulk of his 274-point Address to forward-looking updates or commitments by government to tackling various developmental aspirations and challenges faced by Batswana.
On Monday, he will need to go even further. The country faced an unprecedented trial in COVID-19, which has drained budget revenues, sunk the economy into a record recession, overburdened the public health sector, crushed the private sector and decimated the livelihoods. COVID-19 has upended the plans and policies Masisi and his administration had, to the extent of forcing the creation of the P14.5 billion Economic Recovery and Transformation Plan (ERTP), which now effectively spearheads the remainder of the National Development Plan 11.
