No end in sight for troubled SOEs

Since the 1990s when their establishment picked up pace, government has undertaken various efforts to reform parastatals and turn them into efficient vehicles, with little success. These entities’ struggles belie the fact that they enjoy legislation-backed monopolies in key sectors such as electricity, rail, aviation and others. Parastatals are key to service delivery, and the group of 64 is divided into commercial and non-commercial, meaning those expected to run on a profitable or ‘going concern’ basis and those that, by the nature of their activities, exclusively rely on support from government for sustenance.

“Desperate people do desperate things”– Michael BrooksHowever, this desperate pursuit of employment comes with its own negative outcomes. Therefore, Batswana must guard against becoming easy targets for human traffickers, labour exploiters and other transnational criminal networks that prey on vulnerable job seekers.Numbers don’t lie. The recent revelation by the Botswana Police Service that 22 Batswana have been reported missing after…