Botswana

Lefatshe la Botswana Republic of Botswana
Motto: Pula (Rain)
Anthem: Fatshe leno la rona (Blessed Be This Noble Land)
Capital (and largest city)		Gaborone 24°40′S 25°55′E
Official languages		English (Official), Tswana (National)
Government		Parliamentary Republic
-	President	Festus Gontebanye Mogae
Independence		From United Kingdom
-	Date	September 30, 1966
Area
-	Total	600,370 km² (46th) 231,804 sq mi
-	Water (%)	2.5%
Population
-	2005 estimate	1,765,000 (147th)
GDP (PPP)		2005 estimate
-	Total	$16.64 billion (114th)
-	Per capita	$11,410 (60th)
Currency		Pula (BWP)
Time zone		(UTC+2)
Internet TLD		.bw
Calling code		+267

Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked nation in Southern Africa that is comsidered one of the most stable economically and politically on the continent. The economy, closely tied to South Africa's, is predominated by mining (especially diamonds), cattle, and tourism. Nevertheless, Botswana has been hit very hard by the HIV/AIDS epidemic; the average life expectancy is less than forty years, the worst in the world. Approximately one in three people has HIV, giving Botswana the second highest infection rate in the world after Swaziland. [1]

History

The Batswana (plural of "Motswana"), a term also used to denote all citizens of Botswana, refers to the country's major ethnic group (called the "Tswana" in South Africa). Prior to European contact, the Batswana lived as herders and farmers under tribal rule.

In the late nineteenth century, hostilities broke out between the Shona inhabitants of Botswana and Ndebele tribes who were migrating into the territory from the Kalahari Desert. Tensions also escalated with the Boer settlers from the Transvaal. After appeals by the Batswana leaders for assistance, the British government in 1885 put "Bechuanaland" under its protection. The northern territory remained under direct administration as the Bechuanaland Protectorate and is today's Botswana, while the southern territory became part of the Cape Colony and is now part of the northwest province of South Africa; the majority of Setswana-speaking people today live in South Africa.

When the Union of South Africa was formed in 1910 out of the main British colonies in the region, the Bechuanaland Protectorate, Basutoland (now Lesotho), and Swaziland were not included, but provision was made for their later incorporation. However, a vague undertaking was given to consult their inhabitants, and although successive South African governments sought to have the territories transferred, Britain kept delaying, and it never occurred. The election of the National Party government in 1948, which instituted apartheid, and South Africa's withdrawal from the Commonwealth in 1961, ended any prospect of incorporation of the territories into South Africa.

Route to independence

An expansion of British central authority and the evolution of tribal government resulted in the 1920 establishment of two advisory councils representing Africans and Europeans. Proclamations in 1934 regularized tribal rule and powers. A European-African advisory council was formed in 1951, and the 1961 constitution established a consultative legislative council.

In June 1964, Britain accepted proposals for democratic self-government in Botswana. The seat of government was moved from Mafikeng in South Africa to newly established Gaborone in 1965. The 1965 constitution led to the first general elections and to independence on September 30, 1966. Seretse Khama, a leader in the independence movement and the legitimate claimant to the Ngwato chiefship, was elected as the first president, re-elected twice, and died in office in 1980. The presidency passed to the sitting vice president, Ketumile Masire, who was elected in his own right in 1984 and re-elected in 1989 and 1994. Masire retired from office in 1998. The presidency passed to the sitting vice president, Festus Mogae, who was elected in his own right in 1999 and re-elected in 2004.

Geography

Botswana is bordered by South Africa to the south, Namibia to the west, Zambia to the north, and Zimbabwe to the northeast. It is dominated by the Kalahari Desert, which covers up to 70 percent of the land surface of the country. The Okavango Delta, the world's largest inland delta, is in the northwest. The Makgadikgadi Pan, a large salt pan, lies in the north. Botswana has diverse areas of wildlife habitat, including the Okavango Delta, the Kalahari Desert, grasslands and savannas, the latter where Blue Wildebeest and many antelopes as well as other mammals and birds are found.

Map of Botswana

File:Onkovango delta Botswana Afrika november 2004.jpg

Okavango Delta, Botswana

Politics

Botswana is a representative democratic republic where the president is both head of state and head of government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Parliament. Though it is a multi-party state, since independence the party system has been dominated by the Botswana Democratic Party. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.

Botswana is divided into 9 districts and 28 sub-districts.

Economy

Since independence, Botswana has had the fastest growth in per capita income in the world. The government has maintained a sound fiscal policy and a negligible level of foreign debt. It earned the highest sovereign credit rating in Africa and has stockpiled foreign exchange reserves. Botswana's impressive economic record has been built on the foundation of using revenue generated from diamond mining to fuel economic development through prudent fiscal policies and a cautious foreign policy. Debswana, the only diamond mining company operating in Botswana, is 50 percent owned by the government and generates about half of all government revenues.

Economic development spending is being cut, however, as a result of budget deficits and rising expenditure on healthcare services. The government recognizes that HIV/AIDS will affect the economy and is trying to combat the epidemic, including free antiretroviral drug treatment and a nation-wide Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission program.

Some of Botswana's budget deficits can be traced to relatively high military expenditures , which some critics contend are unnecessary given the low likelihood of international conflict (though the Botswana government also makes use of these troops for multilateral operations and assistance efforts).

Foreign investment

Palapye children, 1987, after the first rain for years.

Botswana seeks to further diversify its economy away from minerals, which account for a third of GDP, down from nearly half of GDP in the early 1990s. Foreign investment and management are welcomed in Botswana. Botswana abolished foreign exchange controls in 1999, has a low corporate tax rate (15 percent), no prohibitions on foreign ownership of companies, and a moderate inflation rate. The World Economic Forum rates Botswana as one of the two most economically competitive nations in Africa.

With its proven record of good economic governance, Botswana was ranked as Africa's least corrupt country by Transparency International in 2004, ahead of many European and Asian countries. Botswana is ranked as by far the best credit risk in Africa. Despite continued challenges such as small market size, landlocked location, and cumbersome bureaucratic processes, Botswana remains one of the best investment opportunities in the developing world.

Trade organizations

Because of its history and geography, Botswana has long had deep ties to the economy of South Africa. The Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU), comprising Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, and South Africa, dates from 1910 and is the world’s oldest customs union. Namibia joined in 1990. Under this arrangement, South Africa has collected levies from customs, sales, and excise duties for all five members, sharing out proceeds based on each country's portion of imports. The exact formula for sharing revenues and the decision-making authority over duties — held exclusively by the government of South Africa — became increasingly controversial, and the members renegotiated the arrangement in 2001. The new structure has now been formally ratified and a SACU Secretariat has been established in Windhoek, Namibia. Following South Africa's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), Botswana also joined; many of the SACU duties are thus declining, making products from outside the area more competitive in Botswana. Currently the SACU countries and the United States are negotiating a free trade agreement. Botswana is currently also negotiating a free-trade agreement with Mercosur and an Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union as part of SADC.

Cattle at a water hole near Serowe

Gaborone is host to the headquarters of the fourteen-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC), a successor to the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (launched in 1980), which focused its efforts on freeing regional economic development from dependence on apartheid South Africa. SADC embraced the newly democratic South Africa as a member in 1994 and has a broad mandate to encourage growth, development, and economic integration in Southern Africa. SADC's Trade Protocol, which was launched on September 1, 2000, calls for the elimination of all tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade by 2008 among the 11 signatory countries. If successful, it will give Botswana companies free access to the far larger regional market. SADC's failure to distance itself from the Mugabe government in Zimbabwe has diminished the number of opportunities for cooperation between the U.S. and SADC.

Tourism

Tourism plays a role in Botswana. A number of national parks and game reserves, with their abundant wildlife, are a top draw for tourists.

Foreign relations

Botswana puts a premium on economic and political integration in Southern Africa. It seeks to make SADC a working vehicle for economic development, and promotes efforts to make the region self-policing in terms of preventative diplomacy, conflict resolution, and good governance. It has welcomed post-apartheid South Africa as a partner in these efforts. Botswana joins the African consensus on most major international matters and is a member of international organizations such as the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, and the African Union.

Demographics

Botswana is in the process or formulating an Action Program on the Elimination of child labor, which is expected to be adopted in the period 2006-2007.

Culture

Botswana is the setting for the popular mystery series by Alexander McCall-Smith, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, and was also the location for the 1980 movie The Gods Must Be Crazy, which featured the Bushmen.

Most of the Bushmen, or San, have been resettled by the Botswana government in an effort, the government said, to protect the wildlife of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and provide services to the people. The San sued, claiming they had been deprived of the right to live and hunt in their ancestral homeland, and in 2006 the High Court agreed, saying that the Bushmen were "forcibly and wrongly deprived of their possessions."

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• "High court gives Bushmen back their land," Washington Times, December 14, 2006.

External links

Government

• The Republic of Botswana official government site
• The Parliament of Botswana official site
• Encyclopaedia Britannica Botswana Country Page
• Supreme Audit Institution Botswana Audit Office

News

• Daily News Government of Botswana newspaper
• African News Dimension - Botswana Breaking News...Second by second
• The Botswana Gazette independent mid-week newspaper
• Mmegi independent daily newspaper
• The Botswana Guardian Independent weekly newspaper
• The Voice Independent weekly newspaper
• Midweek Sun Independent mid-week newspaper
• The Ngami Times Ngamiland's weekly newspaper

Overviews

• BBC News - Country Profile: Botswana
• CIA World Factbook entry on Botswana

Directories

• Open Directory Project - Botswana directory category
• Stanford University - Africa South of the Sahara: Botswana directory category
• The Index on Africa - Botswana directory category
• University of Pennsylvania - African Studies Center: Botswana directory category
• Yahoo! - Botswana directory category

Tourism

• Air Botswana UK - The national airline
• Travel guide to Botswana from Wikitravel
• Botswana Tourism Official website.

Countries of Africa

Sovereign states
Algeria · Angola · Benin · Botswana · Burkina Faso · Burundi · Cameroon · Cape Verde · Central African Republic · Chad · Democratic Republic of the Congo · Republic of the Congo · Comoros · Côte d'Ivoire · Djibouti · Egypt¹ · Equatorial Guinea · Eritrea · Ethiopia · Gabon · The Gambia · Ghana · Guinea-Bissau · Guinea · Kenya · Lesotho · Liberia · Libya · Madagascar · Malawi · Mali · Mauritania · Mauritius · Morocco · Mozambique · Namibia · Niger · Nigeria · Rwanda · Senegal · Seychelles · Sierra Leone · Somalia · South Africa · Spain² · Sudan · Swaziland · São Tomé and Príncipe · Tanzania · Togo · Tunisia · Uganda · Zambia · Zimbabwe

Dependencies  |  Unrecognized
British Indian Ocean Territory (UK) · French Southern and Antarctic Lands (France) · Mayotte (France) · Réunion (France) · St. Helena³ (UK)  |  Puntland · Somaliland · Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic

¹ Partly in Asia.  ² Mostly in Europe.  ³ Includes the dependencies of Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha.

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