28 Jun 2016

Residents of Tlokweng have remained unmoved on their stance to have parliament debates televised.

  The residents echoed this recently during a meeting addressed by the area Member of Parliament, Ms Same Bathobakae at Batlokwa National School.

It was not the first time the residents asked for televising of debates as they asked the same thing during a kgotla meeting addressed by the Speaker of the National Assembly, Ms Gladys Kokorwe in October last year.    

One resident, Mr Elijah Katse said they were eager to know how their MPs fared during parliament debates.

Therefore, televised debates will enable residents to know if they are adequately represented.

Mr Katse said broadcasting parliament debates needed to be budgeted for as they would easily update the community on parliament affairs.

Another resident, Mr Akanyang Seitshiro said there appeared to be a national consensus on the need for televised debates.

He opined that televised debate could either be recorded or broadcasted live, but they will both have the same effect.

In response, Ms Bathobakae conceded that there was an outcry for broadcasting of parliament debates and proceedings.

However, she said the answer that they had been given was that there were no adequate funds for the exercise. She said government was aware of people’s request and added that they would continue to engage with government on the matter.

On other issues, Mr Seitshiro said there was need for Tlokweng sub-district to be a fully-fledged district.

He said the current set up disadvantaged Batlokwa as they had to compete for development with South East district headquarters, which was Ramotswa.

Further, Mr Seitshiro said Tlokweng did not have any major development under the Economic Stimulus Programme. He said the area was mostly regarded for residential despite that its residents needed industries to set up and create employment.

While, Mr Katse said the staff houses which would be built in the area under ESP were just too little, adding that Tlokweng Teachers Training College could have been considered for ESP as it needed attention.

In addition, he said they had hoped that Tlokweng-Zeerust road would be turned into a dual carriage road from Boarder gate.  

On other issues, residents complained about snail pace assessment of destitute and vulnerable children by the South East district council.

Other residents complained that their cattle often crossed the border to South Africa and they had to pay huge sums of money to get them back. Ends