President Duma Boko came into office promising 100,000 jobs within 12 months. He promised an administration that would tackle unemployment, improve livelihoods and deliver economic change.
These were not incidental campaign talking points. They were commitments made to a population desperate for opportunities and relief from economic hardship.
Yet the government’s economic direction appears increasingly at odds with those promises. Under Vice President Ndaba Gaolathe’s stewardship of the government coffers, the emphasis has been on austerity, expenditure restraint and rebuilding the Government Investment Account (GIA). Meanwhile, businesses dependent on government contracts continue to face the consequences of delayed payments while the rest of the economy struggles to generate sufficient employment.
What is the point of promising jobs while pursuing policies that leave businesses struggling to survive? How can the government expect the private sector to expand, recruit workers and stimulate economic activity when its own financial policies risk constraining the circulation of money?
Gaolathe’s apparent determination to grow the GIA leaves us questioning priorities guiding public finances. What is the purpose of accumulating financial reserves if the pursuit of that objective comes at the expense of businesses, jobs and essential services? Fiscal discipline cannot become an excuse for economic paralysis.
Gaolathe’s apparent determination to grow the GIA leaves us questioning priorities guiding public finances. What is the purpose of accumulating financial reserves if the pursuit of that objective comes at the expense of businesses, jobs and essential services? Fiscal discipline cannot become an excuse for economic paralysis.
Boko cannot continue making promises to Batswana while the Finance Ministry pursues a financial strategy that appears to work against their fulfilment. Gaolathe cannot operate as though rebuilding government savings is more important than addressing the prevailing economic distress facing citizens.
The president and his vice president owe the country a clear explanation of how these competing priorities are supposed to work together. If job creation and economic recovery are genuine government objectives, fiscal policy must actively support them. We cannot afford a situation in which the presidency promises economic transformation while the Finance Ministry constrains the means of achieving it.
A government must speak with one economic voice, and its policies must match its promises. Otherwise, Batswana are left wondering whether they elected a government with a common agenda or two parallel governments pulling the country in opposite directions.
