24 Mar 2014

Member of Parliament for Moshupa, Mr Mokgweetsi Masisi has urged the Minister of Transport and Communications to find ways of raising funds to augment the budget the ministry has been allocated.

Contributing to the ministry’s budget request for the 2014/15 financial year, Mr Masisi, also Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration said the ministry should consider increasing the fuel levy, which he said was little.

He called upon the ministry to consider introducing carbon tax for all the emissions from vehicles in the country as well as increasing vehicle licensing fees to help with the maintenance of roads.

Mr Masisi said some roads in his constituency need to be repaired hence the need for the purchased 21 graders to get to work. The ministry should also consider introducing a tax for sand harvesting that was taking place in his constituency.

MP for Molepolole South, Mr Daniel Kwelagobe said the ministry should consider working on the Metsimotlhabe-Molepolole road as it has been shelved for so many years and has a large volume of vehicles.  

Mr Kwelagobe called for the unbundling of some road projects so that Batswana contractors could also benefit and called for the return of the passenger train. Palapye legislator, Mr Moiseraele Goya said the ministry should explain the non-utilisation of the development budget for the previous year.

The ministry, he said should explain the projects that were not implemented due to failure to utilise the funds as well as their achievements and failures.

Mr Goya wondered whether the ministry does not have the capacity to implement projects and end up returning allocated funds.

He decried the recent fuel shortages across the Central Transport Organisation (CTO) depots, noting that government vehicles ended up being fuelled in private filling stations.

Mr Goya said taxi operators in Palapye are refusing to drop people at their destinations citing bad roads and this creates conflicts.

He also said the return of the passenger train should be explained and called for the construction of a railway line to the North West district. MP for Shoshong, Mr Phillip Makgalemele said he was reluctant to support the ministry’s budget requests owing to the non-delivery of the ministry in his constituency.

He however appreciated the supplying of wireless internet to 72 villages and urged the ministry to increase the numbers. Mr Makgalemele said the shortage of vehicles in rural areas should be viewed as a crisis as service provision has stopped because of the situation. Ends