04 Dec 2014

Specially Elected Member of Parliament, Mr Kitso Mokaila says there is need to develop Batswana because they all want access to power.

Debating the State-Of-the-Nation Address on December 3, Mr Mokaila indicated that energy mix was a key component looking at the general outlook of moving the country forward in terms of providing Batswana with power. 

As a result, he said renewable energy was an alternative, but he cautioned that it was more expensive than producing power through coal.  He gave as an example the Phakalane 1.3 Mega Watts photovoltaic power station which he said was built at a cost of P93m while the ministry had electrified 28 villages at the same price in the previous year.

While renewable energy had become topical, Mr Mokaila said his ministry had an ongoing exercise to look at isolated villages and earmark them for stand-alone renewable energy power supply.

“However, you don’t go to renewable energy unless you have fulfilled the needs of your economy and as a mining economy,” he said.  On the other hand, he said they were also looking at setting up a power station in Botswana that would see the country exporting power to neighbouring countries by 2018/19 as other alternatives to provide Batswana with power.

On the mineral sector, Mr Mokaila told Parliament that its future, as government continued to diversify the industry looked bright for the country. He indicated that what government had decided to do with BCL was to turn it around and ensure that the mine kept the 5000 jobs that it already had under its employ.

He said what BCL had to do now was to prospect even outside its area of activities of copper/nickel hence the mine had applied for concession to look at any other minerals. 

He added that the purchase of Nkomati/Nolrilsk was also giving the BCL opportunity to improve their smelting therefore creating more industry or jobs around Selebi-Phikwe. On diamonds, he said the ministry had registered a company called Okavango Diamond Company where government will be taking ownership of what belonged to the nation. 

“We will sell and learn how to price so that as we deal with our partners we are in a position to show them what we can do for ourselves,” he said.  Mr Mokaila added that they had also been issuing licenses to Batswana with lesser stringent conditions for them to partner with people in the same industry. 

Further, he indicated that government had also set up the Mineral Development Company of Botswana to invest in mines in or outside the country to ensure that shares were sold to Batswana for them to partake of the mining industry. 

In his debate, MP for Lerala-Maunatlala, Mr Prince Maele challenged opposition members to understand their role in a democracy.

Mr Maele said he was disappointed that, in his response to the SONA, the Leader of Opposition, Mr Duma Boko did not provide alternatives and solutions but only amplified the already existing challenges. He said the LOO did not talk about the youth, health, agriculture as well as issues of rural development.

Another problem with the opposition, especially new members, he said was that they read the SONA in isolation and did not compare it with previous ones so they would be better placed to present their alternatives.

On other issues, Mr Maele suggested that Botswana benchmark with Namibia to improve on electoral reforms.

He argued that the system that was currently used for registration and voting was too manual. Also, he said people moved between places to register and vote hence suggested that a system be introduced where people could register where they were domiciled to vote at their preferred or respective constituencies. 

On land issues, Mr Maele said while government appreciated challenges of land shortage, it was disappointed at the rate at which people sold land.

He argued that Batswana continued to be allocated plots only to sell them and re-apply for allocations later and as a result it seemed there was shortage when in actual fact it was what he termed “artificial shortage” of land.

On his constituency, Mr Maele thanked the electorate for returning him to Parliament for a second term. Thus, he promised them to raise their concerns and work hard to have them addressed.

He noted, however that his constituents needed a hospital, sub-district, service centre and boarding hostels in Ratholo and Goo-Tau junior secondary schools.

He also said they needed some storm water drainage system in the Tswapong area because the area tended to be flooded during rainy seasons. In turn, he said constituents could also be encouraged to harvest water.

Also, he said there was need for serviced land, village electrification, satellite police station, access roads as well as backlog eradication particularly on accommodation for teachers. ENDS