‘Tswanas abuse Zimbabweans’
Looking at your Online issue of Monday 8th October 2007, I was immediately struck by one article. I found its very title peculiar; to me it sounded not only condescending, but also quite offensive to Zimbabweans.
The title of the article- "Windfall for Zim Medics in Botswana". The article starts by stating how thousands of "Zim medics" currently having a tough time because of their country's ailing economy could soon be "smiling all the way to the bank in Botswana" because of the opening of three new hospitals in the country.
My concern is not so much with the accuracy of the article, which itself is suspect, but rather with the tone. Do the people of Botswana have to find every opportunity to put down Zimbabweans simply because they find themselves in unfortunate circumstances brought upon them by factors beyond their control? Already Botswana is gaining the rather unenviable reputation of being highly xenophobic, not only to Zimbabweans, but to foreigners in general, with Zimbabweans being the main victims of this xenophobia because of being our neighbours and because of the circumstances they find themselves in.
Of course the Zimbabwean media loves this, and they do their own exaggeration and sensationalization of it. One needs just to log onto the internet and see what they wrote regarding the Botswana soldiers and policemen who are alleged to have forced Zimbabweans to have sexual intercourse. Other stories abound, for example, recent interviews of Zimbabwean cross-border traders and the kind of hostility they encounter in Botswana when they come shopping for goods to go and sell at home.
Some of us who have been or are based in other countries in Southern Africa sometimes talk about the kind of treatment we see meted out to visitors by officials on our borders.
There is this seeming inherent negative attitude towards foreigners among many of our officers that is almost spontaneous, including the rather rude tendency of addressing people in Setswana when they are complete strangers and obviously don't understand a word of the language.
A UN colleague of mine, a citizen of a European country that recently became a member of the EU, related to me his experience at the Kazungula border gate. He was coming in as a tourist via Zambia. The group he was in got delayed at the border because he was only carrying foreign currency (convertible currency in USD and EURO) and had to pay something to Botswana customs. They were demanding that he pay in Pula. I am quoting these instances to illustrate how xenophobic Batswana are or are perceived to be, and how in many ways our country needs to prepare its people, including officials, to embrace globalization. Otherwise all the good intentions of attracting investment and tourists may come to nil, as our neighbours are doing much better in these things.
Coming to the "thousands" of "Zim" medical workers who are likely to get a windfall, let me give an opinion. There are already hospitals in the three places mentioned, Serowe, Mahalapye and Molepolole. The new hospitals are really replacements of existing hospitals. So there are doctors, nurses and various technical personnel already working there, who will move into the new facilities. Because of an increase in bed capacity, as well as in some facilities such as X-rays and Laboratories, some more staff will be needed.
If your correspondent wanted to be informative to the public, he/she should have enquired how much bigger are the new hospitals compared to their predecessors in terms of beds, diagnostic capacity, theatres etc., and how much more staff of various categories are therefore needed. I personally doubt that in their entirety, the additional professional staff will number in "thousands".
Secondly, I don't recall any time when Zimbabwean doctors, nurses or technicians have been the dominant expatriate group in the Government hospitals. It may be the case with Gaborone Private Hospital. The medical establishment (doctors) in Botswana has always been majority expatriate, and recruitment from other African countries has always exceeded that from Zimbabwe. In addition there have also been doctors from Asia, parts of Europe etc. What then gives the writer the impression that the new hospitals will constitute some kind of windfall for "Zim" medical personnel.
Nursing in the public health sector in Botswana is actually not dependent on expatriates. Expatriate nurses were recruited in fairly large numbers in the early 1990's following the big expansion of the hospital sub-sector in the 1980's, but local production has largely taken care of this and the need for expatriate nurses is eliminated. I doubt if the new hospitals will bring a need for large numbers of expatriate nurses, certainly not in thousands; I don't even think in hundreds. For technicians (laboratory, X-ray, etc), the establishment is low and any need for more expatriates will be small.
So where does this leave us? The article I refer to is highly suspect and I suspect it was written the way it was simply to throw some satirical missiles at Zimbabweans. I find this distasteful and frankly speaking makes me believe those who accuse Batswana of xenophobia that is especially targeted at our neighbours in Zimbabwe because of their current economic problems. I believe the article would have been more useful to the public if it elucidated how much bigger the new hospitals are than the old ones, how much more service they will offer, how much more staff they will need, and where the professionals were likely to come from in areas where local training does not produce enough personnel.
And lastly, just for information, the Global Fund does not have salary scales. Where they give support for personnel, which is usually for short duration, they give the money to Governments so that the latter use their own scales.
This article first appeared on a Botswana newspaper Mnegi.