Gaborone — New opposition leader, Olebile Gaborone has said that it is unfortunate that changes in the Tribal Land Act has worsened the problem of land shortage in some districts.

In his response to President Ian Khama's State of the Nation Address, he said land is a finite resource, which must be handled with utmost care.

He said that a few people have developed an unbridled appetite for land. The South-East North legislator said that the stampede that was experienced by the Tlokweng Land Board sometime this year is a foretaste of what is going to happen all over Botswana if government does not revert to the earlier arrangement of one man one plot. Addressing Khama's new D for Delivery, Gaborone said if it should happen as Nigerian writer, Chinua Achebe wrote that a cult of mediocrity develops where favouritism based on either tribe, race or political party membership plays a part in employment and conducting state affairs are perpetuated, then the country will suffer the most.

He said if favouritism is allowed to manifest itself in the public service, private sector and even more importantly in political parties, the country will fail to reach its goals. "Nobody should get preferential treatment on account of the above mentioned criteria," he said.

He added that saying Botswana is Africa's shining democracy is now sounding like a monotonous song, which does nothing to set apart the country from its competitors. "If anything, they (accolades) are making us complacent. Can we as an economy boast of better standards of service delivery that can translate all that has been written in our District Development Plan 7 and National Development Plan 10 into concrete results?" he asked.

He said that though a lot of money has been committed to transform the public service, to make it more productive, there are no noticeable results. He added that PMS (Performance Management System) has not improved supervisory skills that can deliver projects without huge cost overruns, inordinate delays, the necessity to rework and sometimes the need to completely demolish the project because it was not properly constructed. "All these tell us that PMS has not achieved its desired goals," he said.