Opinion

The Middle Class Is To Blame For This Covid Mess-Mphoeng Mphoeng

The middle class is to blame for this covid mess=Mphoeng Mphoeng. Popular on Twitter and Facebook, Mphoeng is a seasoned Investment professional, with more than a decade’s experience in corporate investment fields at large firms like BIFM (Botswana Insurance Fund Management), Standard Chartered Bank and Bank of Botswana. He further taught corporate and financial management at the University of Botswana, and during his 5 years as an educator; has published numerous research journals and been involved in various consultancies. He took to social media on 29 July and wrote: 
“One day…. Not today… one day… you my friends reading this have to acknowledge how you yourself failed this country. O bona rona the “middle class”… we are the main reasons for Botswana’s stagnation and regression in past 20 years… Let’s put to the side that y’all are the ones facilitating corruption in procurement, failing government in implementation of policies etc… Let’s put that aside. Our biggest contribution (all of us) is our culpability in this whole mess.

Re claima go didimala about public issues unless in private. We are the people who have access to leadership, information and could put government and everyone under pressure but what do we do, because we think keeping quiet protects our livelihood, we keep quiet. We tell each gore giving feedback in public messes with the bag. And this then becomes a self fulfilling prophecy since o nna learogi when you speak out.
This creates a scenario where the middle class hides from Botswana’s problems by bypassing them. We take our kids to private schools and hospitals so we never face how bad MoE and MoH are. So we live in these lives of privilege blinded by what the true state of Botswana is because to us BW ke cappuccinos in CBD and pastas in Phakalane. We’ve never entered the wards of Marina or talked to a CJSS teacher who will tell you that in Gabs his/her students are sharing 4 maths books in a class of 35. That we don’t give out calculators and instruments anymore. That students have to ask their parents to print their end of month tests at home and at work. These poor conditions get to continue because they don’t affect our lives. After all, the teacher, nurse and administrator working in these places aren’t allowed to speak out but thankfully they can afford to take their kids to private schools and they are covered under medical aid so the horrible conditions they work under, their families never have to experience.
And this arrangement where the middle class acted blind to these problems worked fairly well for everyone in the ecosystem, except of course the poor Motswana. The politician didn’t need to worry because the only people making a noise are the poor wirh no power, the employee in CBD and Fairgrounds could also carry on living month to month hoping for a bonus and praying he/she never lost their job and the (most of the time multinational) corporate providing services and products to Batswana could remain wealthy and pumping out low innovation high cost products. As middle class, we never needed to care.
Until now.
Sadly for the middle class, Covid has upset that ecosystem. The employee wa middle class is only being protected by SOE and has to face the harsh reality that they will likely be out of a job within the next year. The Botswana government machine is also slowly grinding to a halt as we can’t afford the unsustainable way we’ve been living for past 20 years. Covid has disrupted the house of cards. Money is in short supply and soon the cracks will start to show. The corporate and businesses dependent on government will in turn suffer as jobs are few and far between and even when you get them, will you get paid in a timely manner?
To make it even scarier, we are now faced with a health crisis where we have no beds or capacity to take you if you’re sick. We are now all faced by the reality that if you, your family or friends fall sick, you are likely not going to get a bed, nurse, oxygen or doctor assisting you. You have to stay home. So your “silence” when others complained about the health care system is now facing you head on. We are now subject to the mental and health challenges the rest of Botswana has been dealing with as you have lived blissfully unaware of the realities.
Covid has sadly become the great equalizer. The middle class has to now take an active decision that it has to stand up and demand accountability from everyone including themselves. It no longer serves you to keep quiet. Your pressure is needed. Else we will spend the next year burying loved ones every week. When people cry #VaccinateBotswana, they aren’t doing it to be bad annoying people. It’s for the sake of all of us. We are all being faced by a possibility of death being a few days away. And this is a result of all our silence. We have failed Botswana”
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