18 Nov 2015

Sustainable development and the empowerment of local communities is necessary for rural communities such as those in the Ngamiland District and the government has been urged to play a leading role in addressing the area’s economic challenges.

In his response to the State of the Nation Address delivered last week by the President, Lt Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama, the Member of Parliament for Maun West, Mr Tawana Moremi told the National Assembly on Tuesday that Ngamiland faces a myriad of challenges that need to be addressed.

“We are a community that has for long relied on livestock rearing, farming, wildlife management, as well as tourism.  But we face challenges in each of these sectors; we have the foot and mouth disease plaguing the cattle industry, elephants and other wild animals disturbing crop farming, a ban on wildlife hunting, and a tourism industry mostly dominated by foreign owners,” he said.

Mr Moremi stressed that this has reduced the people in his constituency and other areas of Ngamiland to being in the periphery of the country’s economic development, having to rely on state programmes such Ipelegeng for sustenance.

“But we only have a limited number of people who can be employed under Ipelegeng.  We need to address challenges such as foot and mouth, while ensuring that tourism and wildlife are of benefit and not a liability to local communities,” he said.

Furthermore, Mr Moremi said that communities could be assisted to partner with the business community, adding that if some economic activities are regulated, as he said is the case with fishing in Lake Ngami, alternative means of sustenance need to be provided.

He added that income distribution is skewed in the country, as depicted by international gini coefficient statistics, adding that it is incumbent on the government to ensure that individuals and communities are empowered.

Ngami MP, Mr Thato Kwerepe said the cattle industry had once been the mainstay of the economy, but was now facing problems that need to be addressed.

“In Ngamiland our people have a history of being pastoral farmers, but we have a decline in this crucial activity, a situation that needs to be addressed. 

For example, we used to have the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) encourage people engaged in cattle rearing by offering annual incentives to their clients, the meat producers, but we are seeing less of such inducements,” he said. He further lambasted the practice of disease borne cattle being left on open fields after being killed. Ends