NOT AMUSED: Alison Mogaekwa and
Nabuhle Obed

The University of Botswana Political Science Society and STEPS International recently held a two day panel discussion to seek answers on why there is poverty.

Why Poverty is a groundbreaking cross-media event produced by STEPS International that uses film to get people talking about poverty.

The film Stealing Africa which investigates the impact of Glencore which mines copper in Zambia and Land Rush were launched last year in November.

The films are available for global viewing and sharing through a unique combination of partnerships with broadcasters, digital media platforms  and community organizations. “People need to be informed to get out of poverty,” she said.

After watching the fi rst film, ‘Stealing Africa’ UB-SRC presidential hopeful, Alison Moses Mogaekwa said Botswana was lucky because it has a government that manages resources well.

He argued that Zambia, had fallen prey to multinational corporations because of lack of resources.

His counterpart Nabuhle Nolly Obed, said Africa was poor because of the same reasons the West is rich. “We are poor because we undermine ourselves and this is largely because they made us believe that we can’t do it,” she said.

When asked by Kelly Kasale of STEPS how they felt about the films some participants said it made them feel sad and helpless as they were relevant to Botswana.

Others felt that privatization was not the problem but how to implement it.

Lack of benefi ciation was also blamed and Debswana was critisised for being run by a foreigner.

Participants also said Batswana needed to be empowered to take politicians to task.

Alison-Mogaekw