Corruption and Mismanagement in Botswana: A Best ... - See also

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The Journal of Modern African Studies, 32, 3 (I994), pp. 499-521Copyright ( I1994 Cambridge University PressCorruption and Mismanagementin Botswana: a Best-CaseExample?by KENNETHGOOD*INDEPENDENT Botswana has developed on three main pillars: rapidand sustained economic growth (over the decade to 1992, for example,at 8-4 per cent a year, third-highest among all developing countries,and far in excess of any other in Africa);1 multi-party or liberaldemocracy; and an efficient central state, the main features of whichhave been identified and praised by observers.2 With growth, anaccompanying build-up of a relatively strong governmental systemtook place, with activities especially focused on finance and planning.The civil service was maintained at a high level, according to RaviGulhati, by avoiding rapid localization, by providing high compensationfor officials, and by keeping well-defined lines of authorityand accountability. Able people were placed in key positions and keptthere for extended periods. The political elite fairly consistently soughtexpert advice from leading bureaucrats, and the two groups havedisplayed a closeness and mutuality of interest built upon theircommon involvement in cattle and commerce, and the not uncommontendency for cabinet ministers to arise from the ranks of the seniorbureaucracy.Generally conservative fiscal and monetary policies were pursued bythe Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) Government, and an implementationcapacity was constructed which Gulhati described as'very good in most areas'. Charles Harvey and Stephen Lewis also* Associate Professor of Political Studies, University of Botswana, Gaborone. A shorter versionof this article was presented to the Seminar on the Feasibility of the Ombudsman Institution inBotswana, Gaborone, 2-3 November I993.The Economist (London), i8 September I993.2 This section is based upon Kenneth Good, 'Interpreting the Exceptionality of Botswana', inThe Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), 30, i, March I992, pp. 73-6, and the sourcesreferred to are as follows: Christopher Colclough and Stephen McCarthy, The Political Economy ofBotswana: a study of growth and distribution (Oxford, i980); Larry Diamond, 'Introduction: roots offailure, seeds of hope', in Diamond, Juan J. Linz, and Seymour Martin Lipset (eds.), Democracyin Developing Countries, Vol. 2, Africa (Boulder and London, i988), pp. I-32; Ravi Gulhati, TheMaking of Economic Policy in Africa (Washington, DC, i990); and Charles Harvey and Stephen R.Lewis, Jr., Policy Choice and Development Performance in Botswana (London, I 990).
500 KENNETH GOODidentified Botswana's coherent and sustained development capabilities.The bureaucracy tried to anticipate problems and opportunities.Funds were early established to provide for stabilization reserves andfor public-debt service, and such planning helped produce sustaineddevelopment through mineral booms, and an exceptionally low debtserviceburden,3 while the drought relief programme has prevented thefamines which have occurred elsewhere in Africa, even within anenvironment of harsh and recurrent drought.Christopher Colclough and Stephen McCarthy summarised therole of the Botswana state as 'careful planning, economic management,and diplomacy', the latter instanced in skilful negotiationswith De Beers and over-favourable beef export-quotas with theEuropean Union.4 The choosing of appropriate priorities was theresponsibility of a political leadership which Harvey and Lewis saw asof' unusually high quality'. This elite holds constitutional responsibilityfor the management of the governmental system. Interventions in theeconomy have obviously been of great importance, but they have, justas significantly, been restricted and selective - in Gulhati's terms, theywere 'kept to a feasible set'. Mismanagement was thus generally low orabsent, and corruption too was deemed to have been limited; thecountry was outstanding, said Larry Diamond, for the creation ofeffective structures of control.THREE PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSIONS OF INQUIRYIt is this high reputation for good government that has crumbledsince I99I in the face of a series of scandals highlighted by theInternational Project Managers consultancy, the Kgabo report onillegal land-sales, the Botswana Housing Corporation debacle, and thenear ruination of the National Development Bank. Yet these nowmanifest malpractices might well have been latent earlier, overlookedby observers who were themselves once senior advisers in thebureaucracy, or who stressed the relative efficiency and democracy ofBotswana in an Africa which varied economic decrepitude withdictatorship.5 Bad government was perhaps shielded by the hierarchiesand inequalities that permeate the society, and authority's assumption3 Harvey and Lewis, op. cit., and Catherine B. Hill and D. Nelson Mokgethi, 'Botswana:macroeconomic management of commodity booms, 1975-86', in World Bank, SuccessfulDevelopment in Africa (Washington, DC, I989), pp. 174-206.4 Colclough and McCarthy, op. cit. p. 242.5 The exceptionality of Botswana remains a fact, but its extent and limitation require furtherdefinition.
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