29 Nov 2015

The country has made strides towards making tourism one of the major contributors to the country’s economy, but the sector has mostly been focused on the northern parts of the country, while the south has been neglected.

These were the words of Assistant Minister of Health, Dr Alfred Madigele when debating the State-of-the-Nation Address in Parliament.

Dr Madigele said while Botswana was doing well in tourism, much was still needed to promote the sector in the southern parts of the country.

“Tourism continues to be a huge player in our economy, but the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism should pay greater attention to encouraging tourist activity in the south of the country.  Currently we have a skewed situation of a heavy concentration of the sector in the north, while there are attractions in the south that could also be marketed,” he said.

Dr Madigele further said the Chobe area, which is a big tourist attraction, faces the challenge of deforestation because of the overpopulation of wild animals such as elephants, and that the government should consider intervening to safeguard the country’s natural resources.

“We need to speak to the relevant authorities, be it the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) or whoever about the country’s need to reduce the elephant herd.  

The current situation leads to both deforestation as well as human-animal conflict, and needs to be addressed,” he said.

Dr Madigele said the government was working on initiatives such as the economic stimulus programme and the creation of economic special zones, which he said, would boost the country’s economy.

“This will lead to rural development with developmental projects such as primary hospitals to be built in Gumare, Tutume and Thamaga expanding crucial services to communities.  

This is in addition to the already envisaged construction of a hospital in Mochudi,” Dr Madigele said.

He said HIV/AIDS was still a challenge, saying that the number of new infections per year remain unreasonably high, imploring parliamentarians to freely debate issues around traditionally sensitive topics such as homosexuality and female sex workers with a view of “annihilating” the disease.

Dr Madigele, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Mmathethe-Molapowabojang, urged the government to improve the road network in his constituency.

“Most of our council wards lack tarred roads, and the government should work on improving access to the smaller rural settlements as well as the internal roads of villages such as Mmathethe, Molapowabojang, Digawana and Kgoro,” he said.

The MP for Tati West, Mr Biggie Butale also said his constituency was in need of a better road network as well as many other modern amenities.

“Our roads are not in a good state.  Also, our district council in the North East is without a proper chamber, we also lack libraries and other such facilities,” he said.

Mr Butale urged the government to have more flexible labour laws, saying this could contribute towards national development, citing the example of some of the world’s most developed states who utilise the skills of people from across the world to aid in their development. Ends