‘This is bad economics’- Saleshando

Responding to Gaolathe’s nearly four-hour speech under 40 minutes, Saleshando said the numbers really reveal a dangerous trend of overspending and growing deficits in today’s ailing economy. “In 2024, we collected P69.9 billion and spent P81.6 billion. In 2025, revenue was P71.2 billion, but expenditure ballooned to P96.7 billion.

Now in 2026, we are projecting P77.2 billion in revenue against P103.6 billion in spending. That leaves us with a deficit of P26.4 billion,” he said. These are not ordinary times.

Yet, history reminds us that this nation has navigated difficult waters before and did so by clinging firmly to the principles of prudence and macroeconomic stability. From independence in 1966, Botswana chose a path few resource-rich countries managed to sustain. Diamond revenues were not treated as windfalls for reckless expansion, but as capital to be managed with caution. The establishment of fiscal rules,…