7th February 2021
Dog owners living in the capital Gaborone will now have to pay a charge to keep their pets, thanks largely to the Dog Management Bye Law of 2018 introduced by the civic centre leaders. The dog license fee or dog tax as called in other jurisdictions is in addition to a series of other taxes and levies that the government will introduce/revise at the beginning of April 2021 including Value Added Tax, Fuel levy, ministerial charges and rental hikes by the state owned property developer – Botswana Housing Corporation.
A notice circulated by the GCC this week noted that dog owners will now have to start paying as much as P100 for what’s classified as an ordinary dog, P500 for breeding dog, and P600 for guard dog. The fees have been approved by the Gaborone City Council (GCC) and will take effect immediately.
HOUSING: BHC expect tenants to stay put despite rentals going up
Despite imminent plans to hike their rentals, Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC) does not fear a mass exodus from their properties.
As of April, BHC tenants will see their monthly rent more than doubled.
The new adjustments mean a low-cost BHC house will balloon from P537 to P2, 050 – an eye-watering 381 percent increase!
Medium cost accommodation will rise from P1, 330 to P3, 700, while monthly rentals for high-cost properties will become P5, 020, up from P1, 886.
Additionally, those living in BHC flats will have to fork out P3, 500 a month instead of the P1, 238 they are currently paying.
10th January 2021
Puso ga ena madi, the usual rhetoric bellowed by government officials has now turned into a reality as the government takes unprecedented actions to preserve the little that is left after rummaging the foreign reserves.
While the Covid-19 pandemic his largely spared Botswana with fewer than 15,000 infections and 48 deaths, the outbreak and containment measures have upended the country’s financial position, leaving it more vulnerable than ever and likely to accentuate the nation’s long running problems.
Presidential directives and other internal official memos that are now public, paint a picture of a government frantically looking at ways to cut costs and meet obligations as the 2020/2021 financial year comes to an end in March.