18 Aug 2016

Member of Parliament for Kgalagadi South, Mr Frans Van Der Westhuizen has applauded public servants who attend kgotla meetings to get first-hand information about different services provided by government.

Addressing kgotla meetings in Boravast recently, Mr Van Der Westhuizen updated constituents on Bills passed at the recent Parliament sittings, including the Electoral (Amendment) Bill No. 10 of 2016 which amended the Electoral Act to improve efficiency in the electoral process. 

The Bill addressed amongst others issues of electronic voting, registration of voters, preparations of rolls, deleting provisions supplementary rolls and assistance of voters by election officers. 

Mr Van Der Westhuizen, who is also the Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, said the electronic machines would be used during the upcoming elections to improve speed and efficiency of the results.

He assured his constituents that the machines have been tried and tested in neighbouring Namibia and had shown to be good step in the right direction.

Other Bills discussed included the one seeking to increase ministers from 16 to 18, adding that the decision was reached after realising that some ministries were overwhelmed by work.

He also pointed out that Specially Elected Members of Parliament would also be increased to six. 

Welcoming the guests in Bokspits, Kgosi Emang Morerwa said though they appreciate ESP projects in their village, they were concerned that they always see companies descending in their village to carry out such jobs while local companies are left in the cold.

She also pointed out that there was still a very long waiting list of people who had been promised packages but had not received anything. 

He asked government to allow people to export their goods where they could find a good market.

MP Van Der Westhuizen said he shares their concern that though some tenders under the ESP could be done by locals they were made to compete with well-established companies.

He said they should consider themselves lucky because not all villages had benefited from the ESP.

The MP said this year had been declared a drought year and government had taken a decision to subsidise stock feeds by 25 per cent. ENDS