The Botswana Daily News of 30 August carried a front page story about a visit to Kasane, in the far north of the country, by the Assistant Minister for Public Administration, Mr. Masisi. The Minister told residents that they could help to eradicate poverty by ceasing to expect handouts from government and that they should become more autonomous by setting up businesses such as bee keeping, vegetable production and fishery, "among others".
The residents responded that they found it difficult to make a living in such a fashion because there was a chronic water shortage in Kasane so vegetables didn't grow, while requests to government for new plots of land took more than five years to clear; they also had problems with wild animals and annual floods destroying any crops they planted. The Minister answered these objections by saying that residents should irrigate their back yards "with used household water and to desist from washing their cars using hosepipes in order to save water". So there. Just how many Kasane residents actually own cars isn't stated; and the journalist's personal views on the Minister's advice are not given.
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