15 Nov 2015

The recently announced Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) is the centre of debates at the second session of the 11th Parliament.

When responding to the President’s speech, Selebi Phikwe East MP, Mr Nonofo Molefhi said the programme was a welcome development that people should not negatively judge before they even see what it would bring.

He said he wondered why people were already having negative perceptions about the Economic Stimulus Programme, adding that the programme guidelines were yet to be provided.

Mr Molefhi, who is also the Minister of Infrastructure, Science and Technology, noted that the ESP comes with a big budget hence the government would do everything to guard against ills such as corruption while stakeholders such as PPADB and DCEC among others would be brought on board in the process.

The Member of Parliament for Tati East, Mr Guma Moyo said President Lt Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama has identified the challenges that were facing the country and has told the nation what he intended to do to address the challenges, among the solutions was the ESP.

He said the President told people the situation analysis of the economy, the challenges the economy was facing and what government intended to do.

Mr Moyo added that there was nothing wrong with the President telling the nation that there were challenges, and that he had plans to address them while giving people hope.
The Member of Parliament also said he was wondering why people seemed to be so scared about the ESP.

However, Mr Moyo noted that like in any journey, there were bound to be challenges in implementation of the ESP.

Furthermore, Mr Moyo said the President could not talk about the budget because the law did not allow him, adding that the budget was yet to come in the normal process with the Minister of Finance and Development Planning, and that it would be discussed in Parliament.

Meanwhile, the Tati East MP noted with concern that with the budget coming in, the declaration of assets and interests bill was urgent. He said the longer Parliament took with the bill, it would fuel the perceptions that it was designed to benefit MPs the most.

On the other hand, Gaborone North MP, Mr Haskins Nkaigwa shunned the ESP, saying the government had for a long time spent billions in projects that were not sustainable, citing the North South Carrier water project as an example.

On another issue, Mr Nkaigwa said he had expected the President to touch on civil service issues since the conditions of service for public employees were poor, citing low wages among others. Ends