27 Feb 2025

To take the country forward, government must foster political ideology that believes in social justice and human development.
Maun West legislator, Mr Caterpillar Hikuama, told Parliament that it was important to craft a path that must be clear to follow. He said unemployment, poverty an inequality were inherent in capitalist economy.
Commenting on the budget speech on Wednesday, he said immediate past political rule had resulted in the current situation of high unemployment among others, as such UDC must not allow the liberal agenda that had impoverished the people take course.
He said the UDC must move away from honeymoon they were currently enjoying and focus on addressing challenges at hand, adding that the budget lacked a transformative tone as it does not show structural break from what was done by previous government.
He said the budget was more about what the new government found in the coffers; ‘a negative balance,’ rather than focusing on what must be done not on what happened.
“It is government duty to mobilise resources and generate funds to normalise the economy,” he said.
Mr Hikuama said the country was blessed with minerals and other natural resources with the potential to grow its economy and develop the people.
On education, Mr Hikuama welcomed closure of schools to deal with the flood situation.
However, he said prior to the closure, schools were already faced with a dilemma of shortage of food, saying the closure should be a blessing in disguise for authorities to rectify the issue of finance.
Mr Hikuama said education needed radical reforms as it was the basis and foundation of what the country desired to achieve.
As Botswana Congress Party (BCP), he said they  we believed  education was a fundamental human right therefore must be taken seriously.
“As matter of urgency,  come up with reforms to rectify the situation and make sure the student-teacher ratio was what you wanted, implement mother tongue instruction in schools. Reduce quality gap between private and public schools,” said Mr Hikuama.
He said it was important to invest more on early childhood development and education.
Mr Hikuama said government had to commit the budget to establishing a strong foundation through education.
“We agree in terms of ideology on where we want to go. It was mistake for a government believing education on production to stop Out of School Based Education,” he said.
He said UDC must explore abundance of opportunities in agriculture to create employment and grow the economy.
He said there was need to intensify extension services, resource officers on the ground and dealing directly with farmers. ENDS