17 Sep 2015

The Speaker of the National Assembly, Ms Gladys Kokorwe said the roles of Members of Parliament (MPs) do not include societal obligation such as attending funerals and transporting patients to health facilities.

Addressing a kgotla meeting in Letlhakeng recently, Ms Kokorwe said she noted with concern from as far as her tenure as an MP that the electorates think it is the responsibility of their elected members to transport patients. She said putting such an expectation on the elected members will hinder them from performing their core duties.

“Normally there are many funerals across a constituency at any given time, so it will be impossible for MPs and councillors to attend all of them.  We are not saying they should not assist where possible, but we are just saying they should be relieved of this expectation,” she said. Ms Kokorwe said in most instances, the electorates call MPs to ferry patients to hospitals even when they have neighbours or relatives who could have similarly assisted.

On other issues, Ms Kokorwe informed the residents that the leader of opposition is not allowed to address kgotla meetings across the country as MPs have their own constituencies.

She also promised to look into the possibility of translating most of the Parliament literature into Setswana so as to enable more Batswana to read them.

She however, informed them that MPs are free to choose to debate either in Setswana or English as both languages are accepted as official. She said the MPs are however, encouraged to debate in Setswana to reach a wider populace, adding that discussions on broadcasting parliament proceedings on the national television are underway.

Ms Kokorwe was responding after one resident, Mr Oneilwe Pokeng enquired on whether the leader of opposition is legally prohibited from addressing kgotla meetings to explain the role of his office to the public.

Mr Pokeng also called for the translation of the parliament literature into Setswana.

Residents also complained about usage of English by MPs when debating, saying that might contribute to members of the community attending the proceedings in low numbers. 

They also called for the proceedings to be broadcast live so that the community should not rely on the translated version of proceedings by government journalists. Ends