Botswana’s opposition has called for a fundamental overhaul of the country’s budget architecture, arguing that tax justice rather than incremental spending tweaks should anchor the next fiscal cycle.
Delivering a keynote address at a pre-budget consultative meeting hosted by the Youth for Tax Justice Network, Opposition Leader Dumelang Saleshando said the budget must be recast through the lens of intergenerational equity and youth inclusion .
Saleshando framed tax justice as the foundation of the social contract, posing four core questions: who pays, how much they pay relative to their means, what they receive in return, and where the money goes . When that contract is perceived as unfair or opaque, he warned, compliance erodes and disengagement deepens, particularly among young people.
The intervention comes as Botswana faces youth unemployment of 38.4 per cent, a national jobless rate of 28 per cent and a Gini coefficient of 53.3, underscoring high income inequality . Despite upper middle-income status, 17.2 per cent of citizens remain in multidimensional poverty, rising to 32.9 per cent in rural areas .
He criticised the country’s heavy reliance on indirect taxes, which fall disproportionately on young and low-income households, while tax incentives and procurement practices often escape rigorous scrutiny .
Saleshando urged domestication of the SADC Model Law on Public Finance Management to strengthen parliamentary oversight and institutionalise public participation throughout the budget cycle . With public procurement accounting for an estimated 20 to 25 per cent of GDP, he said tighter governance could unlock jobs and curb waste .
‘A youth-responsive budget,’ he said, ‘is where the decision about our demographic dividend is made.’