29/04/2021
UNEMPLOYMENT
28. The 2013 World Bank report indicated that formal sector labour market opportunities in Botswana are very limited and a large share of adults work in low productivity- low wage jobs for example in agriculture or are unemployed. The unemployment rate is also very high, sitting at 17.8% in 2009-10, although if discouraged potential workers are taken into account the rate would be closer to 30%. The type of jobs the President claims he protected would be low wage jobs.
29. Madam Speaker, the President also talks about creating jobs in the next three years without stating how this will be done. The unemployment rate has been sitting at 17.8% since 2007 clearly indicating that in the six and half years that the President has been in charge he has not been able to create any jobs for Batswana save for Ipelegeng.
30. We advocate targeted measures to support employment creation. There is a need to identify areas where job creation is possible- which we term “job drivers.” Specifically the UDC economic agenda points to employment opportunities in sustainable agriculture and food processing, entertainment, leisure, sport and tourism, services (niche sub sectors within services such as health services, education services, business process outsources, business services, logistics/transportation services) information and communications technology, pharmaceuticals and medicines, mining and mineral processing and sustainable energy and water.
31. To further unleash the full potential of our economy the UDC would invest substantial resources in modernizing public infrastructure in a comprehensive and systematic way. This is what we call “The Sky-is-the limit Infrastructure expansion plan. Some of the challenges of our inadequate infrastructure include non-existent water drainage system to capture and conserve water resulting in our water capacity being far below the demand for both industrial and domestic consumption especially in Gaborone, southern and western parts of the country, internet access is still low and where available it is slow and at very high cost, our national electricity generating capacity is far below our needs, the standard of our roads, public physical structures, broad band capacity is poor.
32. Under this Government per capita expenditure on infrastructure is the largest in Sub Saharan Africa but because of inefficiencies and corruption this expenditure has never created sustainable jobs in Botswana.
33. Botswana faces a serious problem of youth unemployment estimated at 50% of the total unemployment in the country. A phenomenon known as the youth bulge has caught up with us. Properly handled the youth bulge can become a demographic dividend, meaning the size of its potential labour force is twice that of the dependent population (children and the elderly) presenting an opportunity if decent jobs are generated for this youthful and highly productive workforce. It is important therefore to create employment and opportunities for the youth to avoid the youth bulge turning into the demographic bomb it will inevitably become with such massive youth unemployment.
34. It is also critical to link Government procurement with skills development for the youth thus encouraging companies to offer apprenticeships to them and revamp their training programmes.
Source: LOO, UDC President Duma Boko
