Whoever is advising President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi on Press matters has lost the plot!

The so-called Press Conference addressed by Masisi at the Little Theatre two weeks ago was nothing close to a press conference, but a tell-tale by a master story-teller, because, if we are to give credit where it’s due, President Masisi is by all accounts, a great story teller!

And this is not by chance or any stroke of luck – the man worked hard to perfect his craft, he is a great actor, belonging to the pantheon of this country’s great performers - Baranodi drama and theatre giants!

It’s precisely because the President is a good orator that he often strays too far in his address – to say it crudely, the excitement gets the better of him – and that is exactly what happened on that fateful Thursday!

I think Masisi may have committed the biggest blunder by removing Batlhalefi Leagajang as his Press Secretary only to replace him with three or four wet-behind the ears rookies from the Private Media.

Much as we are happy that the President has poached from the Private Media at the risk of undermining State Media practitioners - we are also sensitive to ethos and professionalism and would not want to be seen to be lowering the bar – that is the take home message for the President’s current Media team!

And speaking about this thing of poaching from the private Press, Masisi needs to be sensitive to the feelings of those people at Mass Media some of whom have laboured under a false impression that they would be next in line for progression!

Recruiting from outside is tantamount to saying the place is laden with ‘deadwoods’. And the danger with such a thought is that the new recruits may suddenly find themselves facing serious sabotage from the disillusioned staff they find at Mass Media.

Now look what happened at that Press Conference! Here is President telling Batswana how he thoroughly enjoyed watching a basketball game between the LA Lakers and Dallas Mavericks from the front seat row!

I mean really? If the President wants to tell us about his fancies for sports, there are many local teams that he can visit here and we will gladly report about his attendance at such games!

Neither do Batswana want to hear about the rodeo show, notwithstanding his government’s intention to consider the resuscitation of this culture (go palama dipalesa – ox-riding) as a sport in Botswana.

Again, the President wasted precious time on aimless details narrating his encounter with a Nigerian IT expert – John Olajide– who incidentally is the Chairperson of the Corporate Council on Africa – the organisers of the US-Africa Summit that Botswana will be hosting this July!

Yes, for as long as the details were about John’s association with the CCA, it was fine, but when the President delved on the man’s biography, it got me thinking that either the President or his advisors have lost the plot!

How I wish President Masisi could shower the accolades and hold in such awe and great esteem, the many Batswana innovators and IT experts that roam our streets for lack of opportunity with the same gusto as he did for the foreign nationals he met in his sojourns.

Here I am reminded of one Simon Kuhlmann and the trials he’s had to undergo in his bid to interest this country in his robotics – I mean the man has cracked the computer code, but for some reason our system is wired in a way that it rejects natives but prefers foreigners.

That explains why - as Masisi himself eventually conceded when he was asked about his regrets as his five-year tenure comes to a close – we have failed, in spite of our citizen economic empowerment drive, to create big businesses, real investors – men and women that can be called ‘capitalists!’

This failure is due to our hatred for one another – Batswana just don’t like to see fellow Batswana thriving – they suffer from the ‘pull him down’ syndrome!

Before he could field questions, Masisi took a breather and allowed some of the ministers he had towed along – Socrates Gare of the new Ministry of Entrepreneurship; Eric Molale of Transport and Communications; Dr Lemogang Kwape of Foreign Affairs and Mmusi Kgafela of Trade and Investment – to give an update as well.

It was Gare’s update that shocked me! Just like President Masisi, the Minister of the new Ministry of Entrepreneurship – a ministry that should by all intents and purposes – focus on building local entrepreneurial capacity, Gare was instead much more interested in bringing some Germans here to come and exploit the country’s natural resources!

I immediately thought about Prince Gaogopolwe – a creative indigenous knowledge scientist who runs his own operation – HEVEFRU - from his rented home in Tlokweng!

Here is a man whose product, derived from herbs, vegetables and fruits, has helped many including some very prominent people during the COVID-19 episode, yet our authorities turn a blind eye to his work.

This, notwithstanding the fact that HEVEFRU has even entered a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Botswana and has also validated the nutrition and health benefits of the product with the then, Botswana Agricultural College – now Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

I also remembered another herbalist and development practitioner, Oduetse Mphahudi of Modika Polytechnic and his herbal products as well as Oteng Brown of AVOB products, the latter (Brown) having surprised even the University of Botswana with his ‘structured water’ concept, which he now uses to produce AVOB juices in Francistown.

I thought I would remind Minister Gare about some of these men and women who have not been hailed for the great work they are doing here at home, who are never celebrated but are always given

the raw end of the stick whenever they approach government’s financial institutions like CEDA, for credit to start or ramp their production to commercial scale!

Now, instead of finding these people first and finding out what help they require from the Ministry of Entrepreneurship to grow and become real entrepreneurs, Minister Gare has fled off tangent and is now inviting well-established Germans to come and harvest our natural resources!

We have written about Gerrit Struyf who has found a lucrative business in trading Sengaparile to the European Union and is even considering expanding to include Mahupu in his line of products, among which there is Mosukudu and Mosukujane.

If we don’t wake up, people are going to come from all corners of the globe and take everything that we ever had, and the sad thing is that eventually they will deny us access to these our natural resources through intellectual property rights laws.

Before Gare can invite so-called investors, he must do a thorough landscape reconnaissance of what is available at home, do a skills audit and find out who are the practitioners and what assistance they need from government – only when he has done this can he then ask the Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) to scout for a strategic partner who brings either skills or capital investment.

As it is, Gare is putting the cart before the horse and I am afraid he will not succeed, no matter how well his intentions!

Botswana is endowed with natural resources – and these belong to the people of Botswana – not any outsider, we must have a deliberate policy strategy to ensure that these natural resources are exploited by Batswana for the maximum benefit of Batswana.