Dimpho Mashaba
16 October 2007
opinion
Just asking, this question came to my mind after the government accelerated its privatisation stance of Air Botswana and Botswana Telecommunications Corporation, through the intended "strategic partnership" with regional airliner South African Airlink failed.
These move raises more questions than answers. Do these people really know what they are doing? Do they have our interests at heart? Why such a hurry while economically the country is still doing well? Is privatisation panacea for economic growth and development? So help them God for the Botswana Democratic Party capitalist regime don't know what they are doing.
Believe it or not, in principle privatisation is ideal in realising private sector and individual initiatives, of course it broadens domestic equity ownership. The ruling elites believe that privatization is a messiah for economic growth and development. To them privatisation will create a free market economy, promote domestic investment and generate new sources of revenue. President Festus Mogae et al also argue that the exercise will benefit the economy through higher return on capital in private business. To Mogae, Motsumi and PEEPA the move reduces managerial decisions and reduces the government control of business. Who is fooling who? Sorry, the Finance Ministry has something to add unto the list of justifications, Baledzi Gaolathe and his Permanent Secretary Serwalo Tumelo believe that privatisation will reduce the scope of government hence increase capital security.
Hallucinations they make, this is my conclusions after careful analysis of the principle of privatisation; its Economic Theories such as Orthodox, Property Rights, Public Choice and Agency Theory among others. It is just simple it will never work in a third world country like ours.
Allow me to rebut points used by the ruling capitalist regime and their sycophants to justify their sins. In a nutshell privatization only serves to enrich few people and perpetuate the already existing inequalities. Realising individual's initiatives as argued by the BDP capitalist regime is neither here nor there when about 29 of our population live in poverty and deteriorating unemployment rate. How many among our people can manage to buy a stake in Air Botswana? Is this what Domkrag is calling realisation of individual initiatives. Ba mo tshwere satane!
The problem with the current privatisation drive is that it is conceived to satisfy selfish ends rather than broaden economic development. Remember the Galeforolwe and Serwalo saga, this was just time when chicken came home to roost. The public needs to know why the Public Enterprises Evaluation and Privatisation Agency (PEEPA) CEO, Joshua Galeforolwe was told to stop reporting to the Ministry of Finance and instead to Office of the President. They say someone received a warning letter when he tried to question this, my sympathy to the chap. We are told that this development caused a war of words between the Office of the President and Ministry of Finance. Selfish, selfish ends at best. Still on Air Botswana, the negotiations were tainted by allegations from the beginning that they were masterminded by an interested party-Nico Czypionka, former consultant and the member of the Botswana Economic Advisory Committee. Allegations of conflict of interest between PEEPA board members and PPADB.
It is an open secret that the ruling elites and their international friends are positioning themselves in such a way as to gain maximum personal benefits from the privatization program. Sorry the Air Botswana bid did not go as they expected, if only Airlink had known it was just wishful thinking. Mma Motsumi said the deal failed because they had the citizens interest at heart, hell no if at all they have the people's interest at heart they could have abided by MP Maoto's motion and saved the citizens taxes. Nothing could stop them then, even if we the Botswana Congress Party threatened to go to courts of law to stop them since they had violated their 2003 Air Botswana Transition Act, they were so determined to seal the deal. I wonder if they have hearts at all.
All in all privatisation is not a panacea for economic growth and development. Economic growth can only be enhanced by broadening economic participation and restructuring existing parastatals to provide an enabling environment for economic growth.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2007 Mmegi/The Reporter. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
