19 Nov 2014

MP for Okavango, Mr Bagalatia Arone has appealed to government to consider improvement of the road network in his constituency.

Responding to the President’s State-of-the-Nation Address in Parliament on November 18, he said as the rainy season approached, some of his constituents would be stuck in one place as only those with off-the-road vehicles would be able to move from one place to another.

“The people of Okavango have since 1966 used badly graveled roads and the roads are now totally impassable,” he said. He said the road network in the whole of Ngamiland was a nightmare and he submitted that something should be done about the situation.

Mr Arone also called for introduction and use of multi-lingua in schools and official public gatherings as it was discriminatory to use only Setswana and English as this undermined other cultural groupings in the country. He said the quality of education would improve through the introduction of mother-tongue in schools.

On other issues, he said professional conduct of Immigration staff was wanting. “The first impression they give to visitors is not something good for a country that is trying to become a tourism destination,” he said.

Mr Arone also said land shortage in the country was a demonstration of failure by the BDP government as Botswana’s population was too small to warrant land shortage of any sort. He however said the Land Administration Procedures Capacity and Systems project was a commendable initiative to create proper record of land ownership in Botswana.

Mr Arone also called for the decongestion of developments from Gaborone to Francistown. He lamented that a chunk of land in Francistown was owned by people who did not live in Francistown, thereby denying the town some developments because of shortage of land.

Mr Arone also said agriculture had failed because government had failed to move the sector to a profitable level. He said BMC had been “a joke” from its inception, and only meant “to generate money for a certain cartel of cattle barons of the country and not ordinary Batswana.”

As for the tourism industry, he said it might be exciting to hear that a huge number of Batswana were employed in the tourism sector, but the truth of the matter, he said, was that they were underpaid.

“We are not told that these people are holding low positions from waiters to cleaners, they do not earn anything above P1 500; they do not have health insurance and pension benefits to fall on,” he said. 

Mr Arone also called for continuation of efforts to fight the scourge of HIV/AIDS, adding that condoms were not accessible in public places as they used to be. Francistown South MP, Mr Wynter Mmolotsi said Batswana were not benefitting from the Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency .

He said the success rate of the programme was not measured, safe for the huge number of beneficiaries under the programme.

“We need a proper appraisal of how much was spent, the number of projects and their performance rate as well as those that have failed. We need a full account of what is exactly happening to this money,” he said.

Mr Mmolotsi said Bogosi system in the country was marred and meddled by political interests /statements which he said was uncalled for. As for immigration, Mr Mmolotsi said Botswana was a country that disregarded relations with other countries. 

He alledged that instead, personal vendettas were fought with public resources, citing the recent refusal to grant visas to some individuals who were invited to grace opposition party events during political party campaigns.

Mr Mmolotsi said as for agriculture, it was not clear whether there was return -on- investment in ISPAAD. He said he was worried about huge amounts of money spent on the programme that was not measured as to whether government was getting return on investment.

The MP further said internal roads in Francistown were in a bad state and that there was no storm water drainage system yet the Francistown City Council developed the Storm Water Drainage Master Plan five years ago.

He said most homes were waterlogged during rains and thus called for government to avail funds for such a development. “Seventy-two kilometres of road need to be tarred in Francistown. Ke toropo ya mohuta mang e go santseng go thuntshiwa lerole,” he asked.

On health issues, he called for a 24-hour clinic in the city and the decentralisation of ambulances to clinics instead of them remaining in one central point, which makes it difficult to serve the people. ENDS