Botswana's new president sworn in
Botswana’s new president, sworn in on Sunday as the landlocked country’s fifth
post-colonial leader, said he would give priority to tackling youth unemployment
and diversifying its economy.
Retired teacher Mokgweetsi Masisi, who takes over from former army
general Ian Khama, inherits a state with a reputation as one of Africa’s
rare political and economic success stories.
But he faces a huge task in attempting to reduce its dependence on the
diamond trade while creating more jobs after collapsing commodity prices tipped
it into recession in 2015.
“We still seek to build a Botswana in which sustained development is
underpinned by economic diversification,” Masisi told a cheering crowd in
parliament. “One of my top priorities ... will be to address the problem of
unemployment especially amongst the young.”
Botswana, with a population of some 2 million, has a jobless rate of around
20 percent, with youth unemployment thought to be much higher.
Khama, 65, and a son of the country first president Seretse bowed out after
two five-year terms in a scripted succession that compelled him to hand over
power to his deputy.
Masisi becomes only Botswana’s third leader outside the Khama dynasty since
its independence from Britain in 1966.
As part of efforts to branch out of diamonds, he also said his government
would scale up access to technical education and set up initiatives in tourism,
mining, beef and financial services.
Challenging times
But the country’s opposition predicted little change, saying Masisi as deputy
president was instrumental in an economic strategy that had failed to adapt the
economy to the needs of a new generation of finance and science graduates.
“There is no need to celebrate, the change of guard will just be cosmetic. As
vice president he... failed even at the time he was at the ministry of
education,” said a spokesman for the UDC opposition coalition, Moeti
Mohwasa.
After working for United Nations Children’s Fund, Masisi became a lawmaker in
2009. He served as a minister of public affairs from 2011 to 2014, when Khama
named him minister of education and, later the same year, also vice
president.
Viewed by the markets as more business-friendly than his predecessor, Masisi
will serve as leader until national elections in October 2019, for which the
Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) is expected to name him as its presidential
candidate.
The BDP has governed the country since independence but for the first time
won less than 50 percent of the vote for the legislature in the previous
election in 2014. Polls suggest its share will fall further in next year’s
ballot.
Source: eNCA
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