MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT THANK ELECTORATE Members of Parliament have continued to thank the electorate for voting them in the October general elections. Responding to the State-of-the-Nation Address on Wednesday, the MP for Letlhakeng-Lephepe, Mr Liakat Kablay applauded the government for Ipelegeng and rural development programmes. Mr Kablay also thanked the government for providing dikgosi with resources such as vehicles and offices. He also applauded the government for not laying off employees in the period when Botswana was faced with the global economic meltdown. However, Mr Kablay expressed concern about challenges his constituency was faced. He was concerned about the delay in the construction of Letlhakeng-Mapharangwane road and a junior secondary school, which he said was promised in Ngware. He also wanted roads to be tarred in his constituency, arguing that it would enable business people to set up companies, particularly buses and taxies to ferry people to different places in the area. On Ipelegeng, Mr Kablay argued that although the initiative had helped to better the lives of some residents, the government should look into increasing the stipend given to beneficiaries as well as the number of people. The MP was also concerned about the shortage of water in Shadishadi, which had a population of over 800 people but was watered with bowsers. He said the government should find ways of improving the water situation in the area. The MP for Gaborone North, Mr Haskins Nkaigwa also thanked the electorate for their confidence in him to represent them in the 11th Parliament. However, Mr Nkaigwa opined that the Leader of Opposition should have been accorded live coverage by the media in his response to the State-of-the-Nation address. That, he argued would have enabled Batswana who did not have the opportunity to attend Parliament proceedings to get the message intended for them as voters. The former Gaborone City mayor was also concerned about the lack of salary increment for civil servants. He was also of the view that the Gaborone City Council, just like other councils, be allowed to engage youth in Gaborone in manual works. He wanted dikgosi to be independent and not report to the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, arguing that they were not politicians but traditional leaders. The MP also wanted the government to engage the private sector in the running of parks in the country, arguing that that had resulted in Botswana losing huge sums of money in the tourism industry. He also urged the government to incorporate the private sector in the creation of employment via waste management in the form of extracting gas from landfills around the country. Mr Nkaigwa was also concerned about hospitals and clinics which he argued serviced Batswana without the necessary resources. He argued that most of them did not have medicines while others had only one doctor. The situation, he said, had resulted in the increase in child mortality rate contrary to the decline as alluded to by President Lt Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama in his State-of-the-Nation Address recently. On CEDA, Mr Nkaigwa suggested that the programme should have no sealing because that resulted in a lot of projects failing because of being under capitalised. He also said the grace period should be extended to allow growth of business. Gaborone Central MP, Mr Phenyo Butale thanked the electorate, but thought President Khama’s State-of-the-Nation Address was not inspiring. Mr Butale said President Khama ignored issues surrounding freedom of expression, something he argued was foundational to any democracy. Freedom of expression, he said, was not about freedom of the media, but a facilitative right through which people could enjoy any other right and have access to information to know of opportunities available for them. He said Batswana also needed to have information on what other countries were doing as Botswana cooperates with them. He said the media or employees should not be censored, intimidated and victimised, but should be left to do their jobs freely. Such information, he argued helped Batswana to get those holding office to be accountable. He also spoke against existing legislation such as the Media Practitioners and the BOCRA Acts, arguing that transforming the state media into a public service was overdue. He said there were other laws he termed ‘media unfriendly’ such as the Immigration Act which deports journalists, the Penal Code, defamation cases and the National Security Act, among others. Such laws, he argued, needed to be attended to as a matter of urgency. Mr Butale said President Khama should also attend Parliament proceeding to answer for some of the concerns raised by members as a way of accountability via a question and answer session. (BOPA)
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 08:35:01 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015