17 Apr 2013

Government has been commended for the progress of the Economic Diversification Drive (EDD) initiative.

Contribution to the ongoing debate on the mid-term review of the National Development Plan (NDP) 10 in Parliament on Tuesday, MP for Boteti North Mr Slumber Tsogwane said there were signs of moving away from a mineral-based economy.

Although he felt that the country’s developments were skewed in favour of urban areas, he was hopeful that when the economy improved government would consider developing rural areas.

On poverty eradication, the MP said the initiative was good but said it seemed government had forgotten the innovative traditional methods that Batswana used in the past to sustain themselves. He said people in Boteti for instance, used to harvest salt from the Makgadikgadi Pans and made a living out of it.

He suggested that the communities should be assisted to revamp such methods and make them more effective. For his part, MP for Kgalagadi North, Mr Philip Khwae said it was crucial to link EDD with both decentralisation and citizen empowerment. He said as long as some processes remained centralised, citizens would not be empowered.

Mr Khwae also complained that since the start of the plan period, the voice of the informal sector was not being heard relative to that of the formal sector. Ngami MP, Mr Taolo Habano underscored the need to focus on rural communities in a bid to address unemployment as they formed the bulk of the country’s population.

He agreed that it was equally important that rural area dwellers be equipped with skills necessary for survival. Mr Habano further said there was no point celebrating the wealth of the country when some communities still lived in poverty. He said the wealth of any country should be reflected by the lives of the individuals who make up its populace.

Mahalapye West MP, Mr Bernard Bolele said in reviewing the NDP 10, it was important to consider whether or not sufficient progress had been made towards attaining what was laid out in the plan.

He said it was his view that indeed progress had been made, adding that having attained some progress under unfavourable circumstances of a shaky economy , it was clear that had the circumstances been more favourable, a lot would have been achieved.

However, Mr Bolele said he would have been happier had the draft mid-term review report stated some alternative means of achieving the same objectives of the plan with less funding. ENDS