21 Feb 2016

The opposition could be more effective if they focused their energies on playing an effective advisory role to the party in government instead of altogether opposing every policy instituted by the state including those that are of benefit to their own constituents.

These were the sentiments expressed by the Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Mr Kenneth Matambo in parliament on Thursday, when responding to members’ contributions to the budget speech.

Mr Matambo said that in their response to the budget, most opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) had chosen to be negative about most aspects, instead of agreeing with what could be universally considered to be positive, and offering constructive criticism to what could be lacking.

“The contributions of the Gaborone Bonnington North MP, Mr Ndaba Gaolathe and Molepolole North MP, Mr Mohamed Khan noted the positive aspects of the budgets and were constructive in their criticism.  But, the other opposition MPs were highly critical without offering much,” he said.

Mr Matambo said as a governing party, the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) could ill afford to be reckless in what they promise Batswana, saying that the opposition, devoid of positions of authority, had the luxury of having lofty expectations of the budgetary process.

“When you are not accountable to anyone, you are at liberty to oppose anything and everything merely for the sake of opposing.  But, the opposition should rather focus their energies on being advisory, on sensitising government on policy, if they want to act as a genuine alternative government,” Mr Matambo said.

He further expressed gratitude on behalf of his ministry’s staff for “the positive” contributions they got from legislators on the budget, saying they would continue working hard even in difficult circumstances to craft budgets that are of value to the nation.

Minister Matambo said that he hoped that in future MPs would be consulted about their views and constituency needs before the budget and national development plans (NDP) are crafted.

Furthermore, he said that the country believes in careful financial planning, saying that projects announced in the budget are those already planned for in the NDP, or in other cases brought to parliament for approval.

The minister urged the private sector to be enterprising, saying that even when the pula exchange rate is favourable against the world’s major currencies, they fail to take advantage of producing goods for sale to the global market.

“Our private sector tends to wait for the pula to be strong against the rand, and then import finished goods to sell to the local market, and as such we mostly have traders as opposed to entrepreneurs. As a government, we will continue providing favourable policy framework and macroeconomic environment for the private sector to flourish. 

But the private sector has a role to play, they need to be enterprising,” Mr Matambo said. He added that the Economic Stimulus Programme would be of benefit to the country over the three years of its implementation. Ends