17 Nov 2016

MP for Selebi Phikwe West, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse says the Selebi Phikwe Economic Diversification Unit (SPEDU) region should be declared special economic zone in light of BCL Mine closure.

Debating Chapter 6 of the draft NDP 11, he said the region alone had 35 000 households and Selebi Phikwe alone had 49 000 people as of 2011 census. He said out of these people, BCL employed 5000 plus people that was 15 per cent of the SPEDU workforce.

Mr Keorapetse further said failed attempts of textile industry, closure of BPC sub-station in Phikwe, failure to build a copper and nickel electro-refinery plant for over 40 years by government to add value to the smelter plant would have created more employment for people of Selebi Phikwe.

He further said government should consider injecting more in the Selebi Phikwe region as a matter of urgency to create more jobs. He further called on the finance minister to state as to how many jobs would be created to assist the SPEDU region that had the mandate to diversifying economy of the region.

Mr Keorapetse said one of the problems the country was faced with was proliferation of state parastatals, which he said should be reduced to become well-organised.

He also urged government to merge the 11 parastatals in the country into two or three to save money that could be used for job creation.

Serowe South MP, Mr Kgotla Autlwetse said the Serule-Mabeleapudi road was planned for ESP, but has been delayed.

He said as it was, most ESP projects were coming to an end, but there was never an explanation as to why the project never took off, whereas the President once informed the residents about the starting of the project.

Mr Autlwetse also said economic activities that would have been created by the road also disadvantaged people in his constituency.

Gantsi MP, Mr Noah Salakae said his constituency was more disadvantaged in access roads especially the villages of Qabo, Grootelaagte and the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

He said transport sector was the enabling factor in economic growth, hence people in his constituency would continue missing out from economic activities because bad terrains made it difficult for them to network with the mainstream economy.

Mr Salakae further said roads in Gantsi were of poor quality because most of them were placed higher than households, which was bad during rainy seasons.

He further said there was no synergy in what the Finance and Economic Development minister always presented to Parliament because afterwards, implementation by different ministers was something different.

Boteti East MP, Mr Sethomo Lelatisitswe called NDP 11 to respond to the crisis that befell the Selebi Phikwe region. He said government should learn something and extend the SPEDU-like initiative to other mining areas such as Boteti that would help in diversifying the economy away from mining.

He said brigades should teach programmes that were mining related and also be changed to be called technical colleges to attract more youth that attach stigma towards brigades.  

Mr Lelatisitswe said government should also consider channelling more resources towards agricultural and tourism for employment opportunities.

He said the NDP was not clear as to how many jobs in tourism would be created at Boteti, whereas the area was envisaged to be a tourism area under the special economic zones.

He also called for increase of youth grants to enable youth to do factory shells to employ one another.

Mr Lelatisitswe also called for extension of LIMID programme to also include borehole drilling to stimulate agricultural sector.

Kanye South, MP Mr Abram Kesupile said most villages in his constituency would miss out from NDP 11, especially with regards to access roads linking most of the villages, electricity and water provision.

He said Lotlhakane needed a tarred road that traverse the middle of the village because the village has since grown, adding that public officers in the villages should enjoy comfort of accessible roads and electricity provision.

Mr Kesupile also said most of new plots in Kanye South were not in the map for water and electricity provision that was also not visible during the plan period.

He also called for construction of stadium and hospital that were long promised for Kanye area. BOPA