BOTSWANA: Hands Off Traditional Brew-Women

Date: 
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Source: 
All Africa
Countries: 
Africa
Southern Africa
PeaceWomen Consolidated Themes: 
Human Rights

Gender activists at the Botswana Council of Non Governmental Organisation Organisations (BOCONGO) have described as 'crazy' government's move to regulate traditional brews.

Speaking at a panel discussion organised by BOCONGO to respond to the budget proposals on Monday, Maungo Mooki said this will result in loss of income for many families. She said the majority of traditional brewers are women who need the money to send their children to school and keep their families going.

Mooli said that she was disappointed with government for not signing the Southern African Development Committee (SADC) Gender Protocol on the grounds that it does not believe in affirmative action. "Our government is hyprocrite," she said.

Mooki cautioned that there is going to be a serious problem as a result of looming retrenchments in the mining and other sectors.

Antony Morima from Botswana National Youth Council (BNYC) accused government of turning a blind eye to disparities between the lower ranks and management of big companies like Debswana.

She said the management enjoys huge salaries and excessive benefits while their juniors are given a small amount to share. He said government should come up with a stimulus package to rescue the mining company. However, Morima welcomed the replacement of the Out of School Grant with the Youth Grant.

He urged government to establish a National Skills Database for investors to access and see how the labour force of the country is doing. He said the database could be posted on the Internet. He further urged government to introduce an unemployment benefit scheme to assist the unemployed to cope with hard times.

Morima accused government of applying double standards when dealing with youth. He said youth aged 18 years are allowed to vote. Youth under 21 are not allowed to acquire while and youth under 26 are not allowed to sit on land boards.

This, he said, is an inconsistency that needs to be corrected immediately by reducing the qualification age to 18 for all responsibilities. He concluded by urging government to introduce a legal aid scheme since justice is very expensive.

However, Dr Moepeng from the Botswana Institute of Development and Policy Analysis (BIDPA) said he was pleased that the foreign reserves could run the nation for the next 28 months. He welcomed the no-salary increment this year saying this will control inflation.

Trade unionist, Edward Tswaipe, expressed concern at the lack of job security in Botswana. He said people easily lose jobs and government seems not to be bothered by this. He said it was a sign of economic reversal for many people to be going into the informal sector, which has no social security.
Minister Gaolathe presented a deficit budget, the maiden one for President Ian Khama. He revealed that for many years the government has enjoyed budgets with a surplus, cautioning that there is going to be belt tightening in government expenditure.