19 June 2009
editorial
The Botswana Daily News of Thursday June 18 ran a screaming headline that "the Gaborone City Council is corrupt". To most people, that was no revelation.
We all know that councils around the country are very corrupt. Cases of council officials appearing before courts, some of them being convicted, is adequate proof that corruption is rampant in our councils.
What however makes the Daily News story something to ponder over is that, at least, now officials are waking up to the rot that is eating away at our public institutions. For a very long time senior officials hid behind a cloak of officialdom to diplomatically parry away allegations of corruption.
During this period of silence corruption festered. Late as it is, it should be pleasing that officials are now owning up to the cancer that is ravaging the very ground on which they stand. Realisation alone is not enough to fight corruption. There has to be the will to fight it. Corruption is the very reason why some projects have been abandoned, and yet the public has paid for the unfinished project. Corruption is the reason why the public is used to fund badly engineered roads that develop potholes as soon as they are handed over for use. Now that everybody seems to be on board, we expect that the scourge will be fought with unyielding determination.
Inflation
News that national inflation has declined to the single digit rate of 8.4 percent should encourage the Bank of Botswana to extend that benefit to reduction of interest rates.
Careful manipulation of the interest rates to encourage prudent borrowing by business for reinvestment, whilst guarding against excessive spending that could further fuel inflation, should help to invigorate activity in the larger economy.
Bank of Botswana Governor, Linah Mohohlo, indicated at the World Economic Forum for Africa conference held recently in Cape Town, South Africa, that there are good prospects for further slashing of interest rates. The central bank has committed itself to maintaining an inflation rate between three and six percent. Given the current decline, we are all hopeful that the central bank target could be achieved in the long run.Without putting pressure on the bank, we hope that in the short term the interest rates will be reduced in line with the declining inflation figures.
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