Council admits Vision 2016 targets out of reach

Boitshepo Majube | Wednesday April 23, 2014 11:19

 

Yesterday, council publicity manager, Charity Kgotlafela told a seminar that various studies had shown that targets such as no new HIV/AIDS infections, poverty eradication and zero unemployment were impossible to meet by 2016.

“When one looks at the unemployment rate, it is clear that the Vision 2016 target of having zero percent unemployment in two years time is not achievable. It’s very unrealistic and it cannot be achieved,” she said.

The vision has a target of full employment by 2016, where the number of jobs in the formal or informal sectors are enough to cater for all job seekers. Gender distribution among the employed should also be equitable and fair at all levels, like decision-making and management.

Kgotlafela said that the eight percent annual economic growth target in the vision statement is equally unachievable. This growth, according to Vision 2016, was to come from diverse sources generating jobs for ordinary Batswana. By 2016, Botswana is supposed to have eradicated absolute poverty, so that no part of the country would have people living with incomes below the appropriate poverty datum line.

“We cannot achieve that target,” Kgotlafela announced. She said that similarly, the target for no new HIV/AIDS infections by 2016 was out of reach. The Vision 2016 statement envisages that if no affordable cure is available by 2016, all people suffering from AIDS-related illnesses will enjoy quality treatment in health facilities so that they can continue to live full and productive for as long as possible.

Various stakeholders at the seminar also highlighted other aspirations in the vision document that were lagging behind. “Access to good quality basic shelter is still a problem,” said CEDA CEO, Thabo Thamane said.  Others added that moral degradation had taken its toll on Batswana with rising cases of substance abuse, Satanism and corruption.

Kgotlafela noted that the council continued to face the challenges of ownership of the vision by some sectors of the society such as political parties. She pointed out that Batswana have developed a mentality of dependency on the government. “There are also conflicting government interventions or policies,” she said.

The Vision 2016 document and its principal pillars date back to 1996 when then president, Sir Ketumile Masire, appointed nine-man task force to identify national long-term aspirations. The team produced a booklet entitled ‘A Framework for a Long Term Vision for Botswana’.