11 Aug 2015

The just ended first session of the 11th Parliament has been described as productive, given the work that has been done.

Speaking in an interview wrecently, Speaker of the National Assembly, Ms Gladys Kokorwe said she was impressed with what the session had achieved in terms of productivity.

To support her argument, Ms Kokorwe noted that the first session had received a total of 17 bills and out of this, 14 were debated and passed, hence the productivity she referred to. 

She also said two policies, the Botswana Land Policy and National Policy on Gender and Development, were debated and passed, while 1105 questions were received and 668 answered, and others were referred to later dates.

There was also the minister’s question time, which the speaker said was used accordingly, where 37 questions were received and 16 answered while the remaining were referred to later dates and will be taken back in the next session in November.

Furthermore, Ms Kokorwe said a total of 150 motions were received and seven were rigorously debated and adopted, while three were rejected.

Meanwhile, she said even though there were some instances where tempers flared during the course of the debates and where sometimes MPs did not form quorums, she still believed the session went well as it was able to achieve most of its business.

 Ms Kokorwe said these were some of the things that she wanted to address in the next general assembly, working collectively with MPs, both party leaderships and party whips so as to advice each other accordingly and see parliament moving forward.

She also said as the Speaker of the National Assembly, she had a role to make sure that quorum existed in parliament and also that the House was in order.

Ms Kokorwe noted that Standing Order 58.11 clearly stated how MPs should and expected to conduct themselves in Parliament, hence she said she made sure that the Standing Orders were followed. 

The Speaker thus said her desire in future was to continue seeing herself and her deputy working together well with all MPs of both the ruling and opposition parties. ENDS