President Duma Boko has issued a stern warning to those entrusted in shaping the new administration’s vision saying they need to shape and change their habits, as they have failed.
Speaking today at the first economic meeting of Cabinet for the 13th Parliament, he did not mice his words about wanting to take Botswana forward. The country is currently dealing with an economic meltdown, with fears that government is broke and may even fail to pay salaries for civil servants. “We will have to take painful decision in the short term,” Boko told those in attendance who included accounting officers, Ministers, Permanent Secretaries and Chief Executive Officers of parastatals, asking them to make a better Botswana. “We must be bold where boldness is called for,” he added. According to the President, in order to come out of the abyss there is a need to device strategies that can turn around the fortunes. Boko said this new strategy will led by the Vice President and Minister Finance, Ndaba Gaolathe. “We will quarrel fiercely on where this country ought to be. The real question we have to grapple with today is how we get to where we ought to be. We need to have strategy and that strategy itself must be informed by a vision because strategy without vision is a bridge to nowhere,” the President said.
“We need to map out strategies that should take us far. The ways in which we have done things quite clearly haven't worked or as we thought they would. There is absolutely no doubt, if they had worked we would not be where we are, there have been failings and shortcomings. We are responsible all of us, on some shape or form. “If there is a failure it's a collective failure we have failed this Republic, there is absolutely no doubt about this. We therefore call upon all of us who engineered this failure to engineer a different outcome,” he added. The President noted further that the gathering was therefore an endeavor to re-engineer the society.
He said, “This is what we are here to try and do in relation to our present predicaments. We may not be able to direct the wind. That is why we are all here; otherwise there is no absolute justification why we hold these positions. We need to do this to re engineer our society, poverty is a violation of human rights. “We have failed Batswana in the manner we have done things, and in the manner we have conducted ourselves. We now begin to atone, first by acknowledging firstly that we failed them.” Boko’s warning comes at a time when many voters are worried that the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) is not doing enough since dislodging Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) from its 58-year rule. Many people from across political divide, especially those who voted for the UDC, had expected heads to start rolling with multiple senior officials fired, reassigned or even relieved of their duties. Following today’s gathering, it remains to be seen whether the President’s warning could mean that there will be changes in top positions. When the UDC formed government following the 2024 General Election, there were expectations that those who held senior positions in government would be sent home right away to allow the new administration to review staffing as it aligned its priorities.
However, Boko allegedly opined that the mass firing of political appointees across government would be a waste of taxpayers' money and would not improve the day-to-day lives of Batswana who voted for the UDC. Others argued that rushed moves could have ended up raising legal and constitutional questions that could take years to resolve.
