Public discussion about higher education funding in South Africa has been beset by numerous fictions and misunderstandings since the Fees Must Fall movement emerged in 2015. These have been compounded by the political opportunism of President Jacob Zuma and his advisors.
In mid-December 2017, with <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/education/2017-12-16-breaking-news-zuma-blindsided-treasury-in-free-higher-education-decision/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">relatively little consultation</a> or planning, Zuma <a href="http://www.presidency.gov.za/press-statements/president%E2%80%99s-response-heher-commission-inquiry-higher-education-and-training" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> that in 2018 free higher education would be provided to all new first year students from families that earn less than R350,000 per year.
Having participated in the <a href="http://www.che.ac.za/sites/default/files/publications/CHE_South%20African%20higher%20education%20reviewed%20-%20electronic_0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">20-year review of South African higher education</a> in 2013, advised parliamentarians on different funding proposals in 2015, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/options-on-the-table-as-south-africa-wrestles-with-funding-higher-education-87688" target="_blank" rel="noopener">engaged</a> with a report by the commission Zuma set up to examine fee structures, it’s become apparent to me that it is critical to debunk a number of prevalent myths around higher education funding.
The current public “debates” contain many myths or misconceptions about what free tertiary education would mean, ranging from the implications of free higher education proposals for poverty and inequality to the feasibility of funding such proposals. Unless these myths are unmasked the free higher education debate will remain misguided and likely lead to very different, negative outcomes.
In many respects, Zuma’s free higher education proposal is the worst kind of populism. It’s been sold as a radically progressive policy that can be achieved with no negative consequences. But it will actually do very little for the neediest South Africans. And it could have negative consequences for the stability and progressiveness of public expenditure.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2016/11/01/frustration-fans-flames/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Frustration Fans The University Flames</a>
<h2>Busting myths</h2>
Myth 1: Spending on higher education is about helping the poor
When the Fees Must Fall movement emerged, it insisted its fundamental demands were based on concern for poor South Africans. The movement argued that this group was effectively excluded from higher education or disadvantaged in their studies because they could not afford the fees and other costs of studying.
The idea that the movement for free higher education is based on a concern for poor youth is clearly absurd when you consider that <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-feesmustfall-protests-some-inconvenient-truths-67516" target="_blank" rel="noopener">only 5%</a> of South Africans aged between 15 and 34 are students in universities, while 34% are unemployed.
A recent, comprehensive evaluation by South African and international academic economists for the World Bank, examined the effect of government spending and taxation on inequality. Using data on who pays taxes and who benefits from different kinds of public spending, it <a href="http://www.econ3x3.org/article/how-much-inequality-reduced-progressive-taxation-and-government-spending" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> that higher education was the least progressive of all social expenditure. It did the least to reduce inequality, since higher education benefits only a very small proportion of the population and those who do benefit tend to come from wealthier households than the vast majority of South Africans.
Myth 2: There are no consequences for increasing taxes or increasing borrowing
Even if higher education is not the most progressive way to use public money, some supporters of free higher education have argued that it could be more progressive than existing studies suggest – provided the money is raised from wealthier South Africans.
Strictly speaking, this is true. The problem is that supporters of Fees Must Fall have written about possible ways of raising revenue as if the money is effectively free. Proposals such as “double the <a href="http://www.sars.gov.za/TaxTypes/SDL/Pages/default.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">skills levy</a> on companies” or “increase income taxes” are empty; they fail to address the negative consequences of tax increases.
A higher skills levy, paid by firms to fund national training initiatives, means lower profits for firms and potentially less investment. Higher income taxes could lead to greater tax avoidance measures, shifts in how employers remunerate employees, or a reduction in people’s working hours. All these could lead to revenue decreasing. Such dynamics need to at least be taken into account when tabling such proposals. But this has not happened.
The result could be a reliance on taxes, <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/economy/2017-11-13-news-analysis-vat-hike-essential-to-plug-hole-in-revenue/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">like VAT</a>, that are harder to avoid because they are paid by the vast majority of South Africans. There’s a perverse consequence to all this: “free higher education” could actually increase inequality.
This myth-making has recently been compounded by Zuma’s proposal and its advocacy by one of his advisors, Morris Masutha.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2016/12/01/valiant-cause-losing-way/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The Valiant Cause Losing Its Way</a>
Myth 3: Free higher education will reduce youth unemployment and save on future social spending
Masutha claims that free higher education <a href="https://www.enca.com/south-africa/watch-free-higher-education-funds-itself-says-zuma-education-advisor" target="_blank" rel="noopener">will “fund itself”</a>, primarily by reducing future social security spending on social grants and government-built houses. He insists that abolishing fees will lead to higher economic growth.
Given the <a href="http://resep.sun.ac.za/index.php/lmip-conference-presents-new-view-on-challenges-of-tertiary-education-in-sa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tiny proportion</a> of poor youth who can access higher education through their basic education results, the claim about social expenditure is clearly false.
There is a positive relationship between higher education and economic growth. But the current proposal could only “pay for itself” if it produced dramatically more graduates and so increased their economic contribution. There is no reason to believe an effect of that scale is likely and no modelling has been provided to support such claims.
Myth 4: Zuma’s December 2017 proposal is the best way to help poor and needy students
Zuma’s proposal contains two extremely dishonest components: the definition of “poor and working class” students and the limiting of the policy in 2018 to new first year students.
It effectively proposes that in 2018 a first year student from a family earning R340,000 per year will get full government support. But a second year student from a family earning R130,000 will get no support. And a student from the R340,000/year family will get the same support as a student from a R20,000/year family.
This clearly doesn’t prioritise poor students.
A <a href="https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/21700/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rough costing</a> by the Department of Higher Education and Training in 2015 suggested that the threshold could be raised to R217,000 per year for all students. This would benefit more needy students and, at an estimated cost of R12.5 billion, been far more feasible than what Zuma has proposed.
Myth 5: Zuma’s proposal is feasible because it “only” costs R12 billion &#8211; R15 billion
Current estimates put the cost of Zuma’s proposal in 2018 at between R12 billion and R15 billion. Some commentators have suggested this cost will remain static in future. That is almost certainly false.
It would only be true if such funding was either not extended to students entering universities in 2019 or was taken away from the 2018 cohort. Neither scenario makes any sense. Instead, funding is likely to be extended to second years in 2019 and third years in 2020. That will likely lead to an annual cost of <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/no-comment-sachs-says-over-masuthas-fee-free-lying-claim-20180104" target="_blank" rel="noopener">R40 billion</a> or more.
An increase of R12 to R15 billion <a href="https://www.fin24.com/Economy/fee-free-university-education-regressive-davis-tax-committee-report-20171113" target="_blank" rel="noopener">may be affordable</a>. But a R40billion increase is an entirely different proposition.
<h2>Critical decisions</h2>
Thousands of new students are being registered at universities right now. The 2018 Budget is set to be tabled next month with public finances under extreme pressure. Given this reality, it’s critical that all the myths surrounding “free” higher education are laid to rest.
Only then can difficult decisions be taken in the best interests of all South Africans. &#8211; Written by <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/sean-mfundza-muller-298216" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Seán Mfundza Muller</a>, Senior Lecturer in Economics and Research Associate at the Public and Environmental Economics Research Centre (PEERC), <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-johannesburg-1275" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Johannesburg</a>
This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.
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Free higher education in South Africa: cutting through the lies and statistics

A year ago, students were hailed as heroes when they fought for free education. With spirit, focus and a determination to pull together in a common cause, they won an important battle on the slopes of the Union Buildings to freeze university fee increases for 2016.
Fast forward 365 days and that victory is a fleeting memory overshadowed by 831 arrests  that represent a temporary truce that has been broken. This year, students radicalized. Violence escalated on campuses and out onto the streets. In Braamfontein, Johannesburg, students from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) switched from revolutionaries to petty criminals. In the name of free education, buses were set alight and shops were looted.
In Cape Town, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s budget speech was delivered to the thud of stun grenades outside Parliament. Students also began throwing petrol bombs and smashing police vehicles and library windows.
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It followed a police crackdown where students were placed under curfew, had their dorms raided and leaders arrested. It led to 831 arrests and 411 criminal cases, says South Africa’s Acting National Police Commissioner, Lieutenant-General Charles Phahlane.
“There are those who have bombarded us with calls to withdraw police officials from university campuses. We reiterate that it is the violence and criminal acts being committed on those campuses that have invited the presence of the SAPS,” says Phahlane
Former Wits SRC leader, Shaeera Kalla, was hit nine times in the back with rubber bullets while she stood with her hands raised while protesting on campus. Police maintain the crowd had, prior to this, interrupted a test and torn up papers.
Former Wits student leader, Mcebo Dlamini, was detained and held in prison for three weeks before successfully appealing and being released on R2,000 bail.
In light of the extreme nature of this year’s protests, public sympathy has waned. Phahlane maintains the police have reacted with minimal force even when “attacked and pelted with stones”.
Still, the cries of the students involved in the #FeesMustFall movement remain unchanged – free education for all.
“Conversations that were once relegated strictly to the humanities are spilling over into other departments, faculties and disciplines in ways that will hopefully consolidate them in the future, as repositioning and reconstructive efforts begin to take root,” says Brian Kamanzi, a writer and electrical engineering master’s student at the University of Cape Town.
“Currently, a Bachelor of Science program at the University of Cape Town could cost as much as R50,000 ($3,700), a steep price for education in a country where the average annual income is R88,000 ($6,600).”
“Over the years, enrolment in the country’s 26 higher education institutions has steadily grown and in 2017 it is expected to reach 1,053,420. While the intake of students considerably increased, the government’s contribution to universities’ income decreased by 18.4 percent, with the total state budget for public higher education accounting for only 0.74 percent of the gross domestic product.”
Kamanzi argues an overwhelming number of students need loans for education and are forced into debt cycles.
Concerns have also been raised that the students lack unity.
“This has been particularly disconcerting, as the discourse on inclusion of black radical feminism and representation of women and queer activists in leadership structures and media encounters has visibly given way to popular male figures and increasingly centralized leadership,” he says.
Kamanzi also defends the violent acts of students, saying that they were in retaliation.
“What followed was mass arrests, internal expulsions and court interdicts, including denial of bail in some cases; more than 830 protesters have been arrested since February. At the same time the media has not properly reported on the violence against student protesters, which has escalated to incidences of sexual assault by private security and the police.”
Amid all this, universities struggled to keep their doors open and complete the academic year. The country is also facing a $400-million graduate brain drain.
“Progress in negotiations across the campuses is difficult as many protesters are in jail, suspended or expelled. The success of the movement shall be determined, I believe, by its ability to move beyond the campuses and involve broader society,” says Kamanzi.
The question now is not how these protests will end, but if they will end.

The Valiant Cause Losing Its Way

Three, two, one…
That was the chilling countdown from over 300 students as they prepared to hurl rocks at private security on the steps of the Great Hall of the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits).
It came after days of running battles between police and students and eventually spilled onto the streets of Braamfontein in Johannesburg; a bus burned and shops were smashed and looted. The skirmishes got so out of hand that a rubber bullet was fired into the face of a priest. These were scenes reminiscent of the dark days before democracy two decades ago.
There was a nationwide shutdown, from the colonnades of the University of Cape Town (UCT) in the south to the deserted halls of the University of Mpumalanga in the north. For a second consecutive year, angry students, with their #FeesMustFall movement, launched a howl of outrage with demands for free education.
<div id="attachment_5362" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5362" class="size-medium wp-image-5362" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FeesMustFall_Oct10_JC-18-300x206.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="206" />Naitonwide student protest for free education. Using the #feesmustfall slogan.</div>
“We have nothing to lose. At the end of the day, we can barely afford to be here. My mom had to sell her car and downsize her house for me to be here. It’s tough out here and now [Vice-Chancellor Adam Habib] wants to police us if our calls aren’t legitimate,” says Malwande Mhambe, a final year international relations and political studies student.
The protest has escalated since 2015. It has evolved into a call for so-called decolonized universities that students say favour the privileged white middle-class.
“It is something that the youth has been calling for over 20 years now. We want more black students to be able to come to university and to have a better chance of participating in the economy,” says Busisiwe Seabe, leader of #FeesMustFall.
The violent campus backlash this year was sparked by Minister of Higher Education and Learning Blade Nzimande saying ‘those who can pay, must’ at the close of the Fees Commission, a government enquiry set to tackle the issue.
“We strongly condemn the actions of striking students who clearly do not want to see the completion of the academic program. They continue to disrupt and intimidate students who want to continue with their studies and in so doing deny the majority of students their right to higher education,” says Nzimande.
According to Statistics South Africa, university fees have soared by 80% since 2008. Government capped university increases at 8% for 2017. Nearly R300 billion ($21 billion) was allocated to education in 2016, making up 20% of the budget. This is almost double the amount spent on health.
<div id="attachment_5373" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5373" class="size-medium wp-image-5373" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FeesMustFall_Oct10_JC-19-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />FeesMustFall</div>
#FeesMustFall The Tip Of The Iceberg
The students may call for free education, but columnist Max du Preez, argues what has developed is an “extreme race rhetoric”, whereby a “legitimate struggle against whiteness and white privilege is being overtaken by a populist assault on white citizens.”
“It’s time to face the reality. The ‘revolution’ on our campuses is not primarily about university fees any longer. Nor is it about the ‘decolonization’ of the curricula. The subtext, the unspoken agenda, is beginning to look more and more like an effort to create a mini Arab Spring moment and to turn the entire post-1994 dispensation on its head,” Du Preez writes in his column.
Many of the ‘Fallists’, including Wits Student Representative Council’s secretary-general Fasiha Hassan, claim that they are only reacting to police brutality. It is believed that a minority have been fanning the flames of destruction, perpetuated by media coverage.
The rubble and burning debris, on the streets of Braamfontein and on campus, tell their own story.
“Some of these elements, like the Wits protest leader Mcebo Dlamini and UCT’s Chumani Maxwele, are clearly narcissists playing revolution,” says Du Preez.
Western Cape Premier Helen Zille, a former journalist herself, says the protest needs to be tackled head on, without violence.
“We shouldn’t be shooting bullets at kids. We should have our police force with really good shields at all campuses protecting people’s right to study.”
Public policing has overreacted and inflamed confrontation.
“There is no other way out of this. What we have seen is negotiation after negotiation; the goal posts get moved every single time. It’s a deliberate strategy because people don’t want a resolution, they want a revolution and the challenge is you can’t assume people are acting in good faith,” she says.
The fight for free education is fuelled by frustration.
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$400-Million Brain Drain
While the government scrambles to find money, universities say they can’t survive without fees. South Africa faces an even greater threat should universities close down – a crippling R5.6-billion ($400-million) brain drain if graduates are not allowed to finish the year.
The University of Pretoria’s Roula Inglesi-Lotz, Associate Professor of Economics, and Heinrich Bohlmann, Senior Lecturer, believe that the economy stands to lose $400 million if 90% of its 80,000 graduates do not take up positions next year. This is based on an Australian-based economic model designed by the University of Pretoria, in collaboration with global think tank, the Centre of Policy Studies.
Max Price, UCT Vice Chancellor, says if the university does not continue academic activity, it will have to close for the rest of the year. It means thousands of students expecting to work in 2017, including 400 of 4,500 medical students, will not graduate and create a black hole for the economy.
<div id="attachment_5374" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5374" class="size-medium wp-image-5374" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FeesMustFall_Oct10_JC-21-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />FeesMustFall</div>
The University of Stellenbosch is also staring debt in the face. If it does not increase its fees, it will lose R50 million ($3.5 million) in academia and another R80 million ($5.6 million) on accommodation.
Students who have outstanding loans face hard times. Mmakatleho Sefatsa, a 19-year-old second-year education student and her family’s first graduate, is in over her head with R70,000 ($5,000) debt.
“Even if you don’t protest, at the end of the year the university is still going to send you a letter to say: ‘look you haven’t paid for two years, you have to leave’.”
Sefatsa is part of the missing middle – she is not poor enough to qualify for financial aid, and not wealthy enough to pay for her education.
The government plans to restructure fee payments based on students’ wealth: households that earn less than R120,000 ($8,500) a year won’t pay; the government will subsidize the difference in fee increases for the middle class, or missing middle, between R120,000 ($8,500) and R600,000 ($42,500); while the affluent will pay.
Undergraduate tuition fees at Wits can reach almost R60,000 ($4,200) a year.
Back at Wits, classes have continued under duress and with heavy police presence. The university’s spokesperson, Shirona Patel, says they will not give up.
“We need to finish the academic program this year and we need to have exams written. This will be our key focus for the next two weeks. Despite yesterday’s disruptions, we still had about half of our classes going and we’ll keep going every day until we get the academic program back on track.”
UCT, the University of Pretoria, and the Tshwane University of Technology, attempted to keep their doors open. Threats and escalating violence forced them to shut down.  Negotiations appear to have ground to a stuttering, and painful, halt.
“Access to higher education, particularly for the poor is everyone’s concern and therefore all stakeholders must play an active role in saving our 2016 academic program. Ongoing negotiations cannot stand in the way of classes resuming, dialogue is the only answer, and intimidation and violence will never address the legitimate concerns of students,” says Nzimande.
With negotiations stuttering and the academic year coming to an end, time is running out.
Why Free Education Won’t Favor The Poor
Students want free education, but do any of them know what it means.
Nico Cloete, Director of the Centre for Higher Education Trust at the University of the Western Cape, says students are asking the wrong questions.
“There is no such thing as ‘free higher education’. Universities are very expensive. Rather, the issue is who pays what and when? Secondly, international research shows that ‘there is broad agreement among economists of higher education funding that government subsidies are regressive, meaning subsidies favor the rich’. According to Nicholas Barr from the London School of Economics, public universities often argue that low or no tuition fees provide greater equality of educational opportunity, but that the overwhelming subsidy in public universities accrues to students from middle- and high-income families,” he says.
Cloete is one of the academics who submitted documents to the Fees Commission.
“The question to be addressed by the Fees Commission should have been: What is required for a sustainable higher education system with affordability for those who qualify for access?”
Higher education is seen as a ladder into the affluent middle class. The World Bank reports that South Africa has the highest private return to tertiary education. University graduates are three to five times more likely to find a job than high school graduates.
Cloete argues, of the million students who enter school, about 110,000 will enrol at university and 55,000 will graduate after five years. But, 45% of all undergraduates, and 70% of the poor on student financial aid, never graduate.
“So, the issue is not whether there is enough money for free tertiary education, the issue is to fix the undergraduate university and the college systems, provide vastly expanded education and training opportunities, put in place a modern progressive graduate tax (instead of an outdated loan scheme) and stop raiding the treasury. While the Fees Commission and the media are looking at money, the issue is political and systemic.”
The road will be long and arduous. It will take another three years to successfully transform university structures and integrate reform into the national budget, says Price. UCT and Wits also claim that 90% of its students want academic activity to continue and this majority is being held to ransom by a small group of ‘bullies’.
Meanwhile, the frustrated students who bay for change want it now, without paying another cent.

Frustration Fans The Flames

In 1966, if you drove through Gaborone and blinked you would have missed it. It was little more than a barren railway stop, in the middle of nowhere, on the way from Cape Town to Cairo. Those living here would have said there was nothing more to it than termite mounds and elephants.
At the time, this land-locked country was considered to be the poorest in Africa, with a per capita of $70. It had nine secondary schools, 50 university graduates, a railway line built by Cecil John Rhodes, and five kilometers of tarred road that stretched between Lobatse Station and the High Court.
From this backwater beginning Botswana has emerged as one of the fastest growing economies in the world and moved into the ranks of upper-middle income countries. Real GDP shows an average growth of 5% per annum over the past decade, at a time when the most advanced economies have been falling apart. In 2015, GDP stood at $14.39 billion. This remarkable growth, according to the World Bank, is because of diamonds hidden deep in Orapa, 521 kilometers north of Gaborone. The discovery was made in 1967, months after Botswana’s independence was declared on September 30, 1966, and the proceeds went to the state rather than colonial coffers.
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But, if you look closely at the white walls and fresh cement of Gaborone, cracks appear. In the week FORBES AFRICA arrived in Gaborone, unemployed youth clashed with police outside Parliament; four of them spent the night in jail.
It is called #UnemploymentMovement and uses social media to fuel support, much like South Africa’s #FeesMustFall student protests a year ago. It comes at a time when citizens question the government’s P100 million ($9.76 million) budget for its golden jubilee.
It is a big problem. One third of Botswana’s two million people are youth. The World Bank says poverty in Botswana is 17.8%, among youth aged between 15 and 24 its 34.10%. This is despite government spending 9% of its $14.39 billion GDP on free education.
One of those that spent the night in jail is Jones Banda, a committee leader behind #UnemploymentMovement. Speaking to FORBES AFRICA while on a march on August 13, he says the movement started with just one student, Tlamelo Tsurupe, standing outside Parliament with a poster. Within a week dozens more, including Banda, joined him.
“The youth of Botswana have realized our government can no longer place jobs for the youth&#8230; Most of our emphasis now is on the graduates. Why? Because it is [graduates] that are very frustrated. They have been educated by the government to take control of the economy and now the government is not absorbing them. Mind you, the students have loans to pay,” says Banda.
At the time of going to print, the BDP had not released an official statement concerning police assault at the protest on August 8. A permit was granted for the march held on August 13.
Banda believes unemployed youth make up more than 17.8%. This is because unemployed graduates have to register with the government, meaning that thousands of other students who are not graduates are not considered.
Banda’s stint behind bars hardened his resolve.
“Being in jail is almost as if I was home, not that I have ever been in jail. But for the movement it was a good thing. We felt the brunt of system and so we know now who is on our side. It was what we expected,” says Banda.
While students called for better employment, there are others who have managed to eke out a living.
A 32-year-old electrical engineering graduate, Kagiso Monkgatusi, makes his living from flying a P45,000 ($4,400) drone, one of the few owned and licensed in the country.
Monkgatusi, a photographer by trade, got the idea for his business after seeing footage on the internet. It led to him starting his small business, Africa Killer Bee Media, named because of the sound the drone makes in flight. The drone was given to him as a grant by the government-run Local Enterprise Authority. Monkgatusi’s success is an indication of Botswana’s potential.
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In Gaborone, there are small signs of burgeoning wealth; tarred roads glisten, as bright as the country’s diamonds, next to dusty sidewalks; malls, polished and pristine, are packed to the rafters with food, shoes and cell phone stores. The city center is a hive of activity as scaffolding rises on the skyline.
Botswana’s success is largely due to a stable government with strong fiscal management, reports the World Bank. President Ian Khama, whose photo hangs on the wall of every store you visit, has held office since 2008. He is the head of the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) that has been in power since the first elections in 1965. Every president has been democratically elected and all stood down after their two-term limit.
At the very least, Botswana is trying hard to improve investment and growth in their small economy.
For the hungry investor, Special Economic Zones (SEZ) have been built in Lobatse, Gaborone, Palapye, Selibe Phikwe, Tuli Block, Francistown and Pandamatenga.
“In April, P1.6 billion, of P3.5 billion over three years, in tenders have been awarded and the focus is mainly on the construction of roads, health and education facilities. Other sectors that have been allocated package proceeds are manufacturing, tourism and agriculture,” says Moatlhodi Sebabole, Research Manager at First National Bank Botswana.
Sebabole says Botswana also has a five-year national development plan (NDP) which will focus on coal mining, base metals and diamonds. However, according to Sebabole, investors need to keep a careful eye on low agriculture and food security, stability of water and electricity, and low investment growth.
“The production side of the economy still remains under turbulence with the closure of some abattoirs as well as base metal mines like African Copper,” says Sebabole.
Regardless, Sebabole believes Botswana’s outlook over the next 10 years is promising. Focus will remain on infrastructure projects in water, rail and electricity, which will need financing of P100 billion (around $10 billion) by 2019.
Botswana is a far cry from the country that started with $70 per person a year and five kilometers of tarred road. Fifty years on, it faces new challenges that show how far the country has come – some might even go as far as calling it first world problems, including an educated and militant youth.

Tag: #FeesMustFall

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Free higher education in South Africa: cutting through the lies and statistics

The Valiant Cause Losing Its Way

Frustration Fans The Flames

Young, Jobless And ANGRY