Anglo American Boss Graces Ub Foundation Dinner
Monday, September 12, 2016
The guest speaker at the dinner, themed, ‘Natural Resource-based Development Strategy: An Assessment of Botswana’s 50 year Experience and Prospects for the Future’ was Mark Cutifani, a businessman and CEO of Anglo American. Cutifani hailed Botswana for having grown significantly economy wise and in education over the past 50 years. He called on the UB alumni and other stakeholders to continue supporting education and skills development across schools and the society. He noted that in 1966, there was about 40 university graduates and about 100 secondary school graduates in a population of around 600 000, and today there are more than 20 senior secondary schools, primary education enrolment rate is in excess of 90%. “That’s impressive and something that every Motswana should be proud of.”
He said due to good management of diamond resources with long-term goals in mind, Botswana has one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Cutifani said it is intellectual capital acquired through education that Botswana has achieved this.
While it is widely acknowledged that Khama holds the title of Kgosi, the government’s failure to properly gazette his recognition has raised serious concerns about adherence to legal procedures and the credibility of traditional leadership. (See a story elsewhere in this newspaper.) Recent court documents by the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Kgotla Autlwetse, shed light on the intricacies of Khama’s recognition process....