Khan calls for investigations on former Ministers
Member of Parliament for Molepolole North, Arafat Khan says for the longest time, or at least in the past five years, Botswana's reputation has swung from that of a land of great opportunity to that of a country with an uncertain future.
Taken as a whole, the period from 2018/19 to October 2024 was effectively the darkest period for the country's economy, characterised by frivolous remarks and gestures on issues of national interest, he said.
Responding to the State of the Nation Address presented by President Advocate Duma Boko, Khan stated that in the end, public trust and confidence in the State, plummeted. He said against this dismal performance, the October 2024 election presented the best opportunity for regime change.
“In view of inherent management problems in the public sector enterprises or SOEs, there is increasing scepticism about the ability of the previous BDP government to deal with corruption and economic crime.
“Looking at this state of affairs, my broad conclusion is that while on the surface BDP Government has set up Oversight Institutions to deal with corrupt practices, the political leaders and corporate entities were in-fact working together, as organised and systematic syndicates to deplete the national economy,” Khan stated.
He argued that in a systematic way, the BDP government orchestrated organised crime and of course most of the SOEs have become cesspools of crime. Khan indicated that despite sustained campaigns to project the contrary, there is in fact a substantial gap between what was considered to be economically sound and what was found to be politically feasible.
'As a nation, we were subjected to a series of political gimmicky in the form of unfulfilled promises,' he said adding that corruption and looting must be investigated as soon as possible and culprits prosecuted. “The concept of Development Managers must be stopped with immediate effect.
This was planned looting at a grand scale. The BDP government unashamedly lined up companies to steal in broad daylight and attempted to normalise that kind of looting. “Equally government must review the corruptible Development Manager (DM) model with a provision for companies that benefitted from this Model to pay back the money,” Khan stated.
He called upon government to do a lifestyle audit of former ministers to determine their source of wealth. He explained that it is necessary to restore public trust in the State and in the process, there is need to institute judicial proceedings on corruption, to undertake lifestyle audit of State Owned Enterprises executives and board members.
According to Khan, Botswana today has the knowledge and the skills to produce and process a wide range of products and services at competitive costs for the benefit of Batswana.
He pointed out that there is a general belief under the UDC government that it is necessary for Botswana to make a decisive move towards deeper reforms and reduce the pervasive procedural and administrative bottlenecks in the face of the deadweight of the past.
“The hangover of the past is also reflected in the continuing dominant role of the bloated bureaucracy in determining policy outcomes. We need to create a lean structure at the top and provide opportunities for young graduates to effect genuine transformation.
“Without doubt, Botswana's democratic politics has some highly-positive features, the youth and unemployed vote,” Khan added.