The late 1980s and early 1990s were characterised by unprecedented waves of privatisation\r\nin the world. Like other developing economies, Botswana jumped into the bandwagon and\r\nlaid the legal framework for privatisation by way of promulgating a Privatisation Policy for\r\nBotswana in 2000. It is notable that despite the promulgation of the Policy, privatisation will\r\nonly commence with the privatisation of the National Development Bank (NDB) in late 2011.\r\nThis paper, relying on a variety sources; for example, newspaper accounts, personal\r\ninterviews etc traces the privatisation process beginning with the appointment of the\r\nPrivatisation Task Force in 1997, the passage of the Privatisation Policy for Botswana in\r\n2000 and right up to the aborted privatisation of Air Botswana and the recent decision to\r\nprivatise the NDB. Largely drawing from the Air Botswana saga, the paper argues that key\r\nfirsts, being the delineation of an institutional-legal framework and public education on\r\nprivatisation, either did not happen first or sloppily happened. As it is, Botswana has crossed\r\nthe Rubicon, therefore, there is no going back on privatisation. Hence, as the government\r\ngoes ahead with the privatisation of NDB, and the Botswana Telecommunications\r\nCorporation thereafter, there is a need to either do first things firstly or do them correctly so\r\nthat the privatisation project can be successfully delivered. Principally, the powers of the both\r\nthe executive and legislative arms of government must be delineated in regard to privatisation\r\nand public education must be an ongoing exercise to ensure a buy-in.
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