The Tyranny of Time

The bruhaha of Budget 26 recedes, leaving an unnerving sense of déjà vu. This is not criticism of the effort, but a feeling that much of it has been heard before. Development fatigue is often described as exhaustion among funding agencies, governments, and citizens.

In Botswana, it surfaces in quiet conversations and public debate. Vision follows vision. Plans follow plans.

Each promises transformation. Yet diversification remains elusive, youth unemployment persists, and the digital economy has yet to fully emerge. The natural question arises: why does change feel so slow?

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The answer lies not in failure of intent or shortage of resources, but in a misunderstanding of time itself. Development does not unfold on a single clock. It unfolds on three fundamentally different clocks: infrastructure, education, and society.

These clocks do not move at the same speed. When they fall out of alignment, development appears to stall even when progress is real. The fastest of these clocks is infrastructure.

Physical infrastructure can be built within a political cycle. Botswana’s transformation since independence illustrates this vividly. In a few decades, the country constructed thousands of kilometres of paved road, modern airports, power stations, and telecommunications networks.

More recently, fibre-optic cables have been laid across the country, connecting Botswana to the global digital economy. These achievements were accomplished within years, not generations. The same pattern is visible in transport.

Botswana’s highways are modern and extensive, yet road fatalities remain stubbornly high. This is not a failure of engineering. It reflects the time required for social norms around speed, alcohol, and enforcement to evolve.

The road was built quickly. Road culture is changing slowly. Infrastructure creates possibility.

It does not guarantee assimilation, business creation, or jobs. The second clock moves more slowly: education. Educating a person requires consistency over nearly two decades, from early childhood to adulthood.

Botswana recognised this early and invested heavily in human capital. The result is one of the most educated populations in Africa. University graduates now enter the labour market in large numbers, equipped with modern skills and global awareness.

Yet many enter an economy that has not diversified at the same speed as education expanded. Government remains the dominant employer, and private sector absorption is limited. This creates a sense of dislocation.

Education prepares individuals for a modern economy. The modern economy itself is still emerging. This temporal gap is deeply consequential.

While conventional wisdom often focuses on individual capacity, the issue is largely systemic. Education can be expanded within a generation. The economic ecosystems required to absorb educated populations take longer to develop.

South Korea offers an instructive example. In the 1970s, it rapidly expanded education, producing engineers and scientists faster than its economy could employ them. For a time, many worked in lower-value roles.

Over subsequent decades, as industrial ecosystems matured, that same population became the foundation of globally competitive industries. Botswana today stands at a similar juncture. The skills exist.

The capacity is present. But the economic structures that can fully utilise them are still evolving. The slowest clock of all is society itself.

Culture evolves over generations. Botswana’s digital lag illustrates this clearly. The technology exists.

The infrastructure exists. The educated population exists. Yet digital economic behaviour remains tentative.

Businesses prefer physical verification. Institutions rely on paperwork. Citizens prefer personal reassurance.

These preferences are not irrational. They reflect habits formed over decades in an analogue world, where physical presence was the foundation of trust. Trust operates on a generational timeline.

Botswana’s success since independence has rested heavily on institutional trust. Citizens trust government. Investors trust contracts.

This trust was built slowly, through consistent experience. However, trust in new systems, particularly digital ones, must be rebuilt. It cannot be legislated. It must be lived.

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