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Botswana: the only real democracy in Africa

By Guy Hallowes - posted Friday, 10 August 2018


My own personal experience of the 'no-corruption' regime in Botswana was when we had a senior government minister constantly 'requesting' free cases of beer. We quietly suggested that we should 'phone Phil' to see if what he was asking was legitimate in terms of government regulations. Without answering he literally ran out of the office and we never saw hide nor hair of him again. A minor issue but it illustrates the point.

Limited Presidential terms and regular elections.

By and large over the years the elected President has only been allowed to serve two four-year terms, although Sir Seretse did serve fourteen years as Prime Minister and President until his death in 1980.

There are regular parliamentary elections every four years.

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Economic Development

Diamonds

The discovery of diamonds in 1970 changed the whole economic outlook for the country. In many parts of Africa such a discovery has resulted in massive corruption with large parts of the revenues being siphoned off by the people in power. This has not happened in Botswana. The secretary for finance with whom I had some dealings said to me once: 'It is my job to grow government revenues, not to make the already wealthy Motswana, wealthier still.' And they have done just that. My understanding is that the Government of Botswana has renegotiated more favourable arrangements with De Beers regarding the sharing of diamond revenues, and they now also own a substantial share of the De Beers company.

Botswana Meat Commission

The Government owns a large meat processing plant in the south af the country. It has a licence to export beef to the European Union. The important issue here is that over the years the population, who are mainly cattle people, have got used to regularly sending their cattle to the plant. This has had the effect of improving the quality of the herd; people are also paid within six weeks, so that much need cash is distributed widely into the rural areas.

Tourism

The Okavango delta is one of the wonders of the world. It is a very sensitive eco-system. It is the preserve of a fantastic array of wild animals in their natural habitat. Again the Botswana Government has continued sensible policies in this area by limiting the number of people allowed into the Okavango delta. This does make it expensive, but they have not made the mistake of over-exploiting a scarce resource.

Other economic developments

Botswana has enjoyed GDP growth of about 9% per annum for the past fifty years.

Maintenance of high employment.

The Government philosophy of maximising high employment has been illustrated above.

On an annual basis we used to spend two or three days sitting with the minister of employment to reinforce this philosophy. We had an elaborate job grading system and we compared every one of our local job categories (we had about one thousand employees) with government job categories- the other motivation was the government didn't want us to 'steal' their employees by paying higher wages and salaries. The government, rightly, showed no interest in what we paid expatriate staff. So we had the unusual situation of us trying to raise job categories to a higher level with the minister trying to lower them. This was always done with humour and goodwill. I did have to concede at one point that my 'assistant general manager' could not be paid more than the president of the country.

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The policy was effective. We had a policy of not installing automation equipment in the brewery if it meant redundancies.

Other Issues

The ownership and use of land is a constant and real issue in many countries in Africa. In Botswana most of the land is owned by the local tribe and controlled by the local chief. Most of the country is a waterless savannah, there is almost no surface water, except in the Okavango. There is an abundance of underground water though. During the time of the British protectorate individuals were allowed to bore for water, with the permission of the local chief and provided the borehole was at least five miles from the nearest existing borehole. The person who drilled the borehole was then granted sole rights to the water from his/her own borehole, so was able to raise cattle there. Under this situation, the ownership of the land was never put in question, but people who had invested in the borehole's rights were protected. This policy has been continued.

Compared to Kenya and Zimbabwe, there was no significant settler heritage. Just another complication they did not have to deal with.

In general I have nothing but admiration for the way that Botswana has managed its affairs, especially given the poor examples provided by its bigger and wealthier neighbours.

What they have done has certainly paid off: GDP per capita is about $US7000 per annum and on a PPP basis is about $US 17000 per annum. This compares very well with neighbouring countries and totally eclipses the results from Kenya and Zimbabwe for example.

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About the Author

Sydney-based Guy Hallowes is the author of Icefall, a thriller dealing with the consequences of climate change. He has also written several novels on the change from Colonial to Majority rule in Africa. To buy browse and buy his books click here.

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