28 Nov 2016

The Member of Parliament for Gaborone South, Mr Kagiso Molatlhegi says he is worried the development of storm water drainage system has been excluded from the National Development Plan 11 (NDP 11).   
Debating Chapter 11 of the draft NDP 11 in Parliament on Friday, MP Molatlhegi said his area was prone to flooding, adding the Master Plan was long concluded and therefore only the actual infrastructure should be developed.
He further said although Gaborone has been earmarked as a Diamond City, it was usually dark as streetlights were not properly functioning.
MP Molatlhegi said he was also worried that Bontleng, White City and Old Naledi remain under developed yet they are the original locations that laid down the foundation for the city, but did not have storm water drainage systems, tarred roads and streetlights.
Talking about Parliament, he said the employees were all cramped in C1 scale as there were no vacancies in D4 and the Gaborone South legislator said it has to be restructured.
He said Parliament should have a researched department and its own broadcasting unit which could provide materials to Btv.
MP Molatlhegi said Parliament employees were provided with extra duty allowance which was later replaced with overtime allowance, but the latter has proved to be expensive causing budgetary headaches in the process.
He called for the re-introduction of the extra duty allowance, saying it was easy to budget for.
For his part, Gaborone Bonnington North MP, Mr Duma Boko said Parliament needed to be independent with its own budget with the Speaker as its head.
He said a number of government institutions were not capacitated to carry out their functions citing the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC), saying it cannot investigate the President as it is not independent.
Mr Boko said lack of independence of some institutions was a travesty of justice.
He said government has abdicated its duties of taking care of the children as stated in the Children’s Act to non-government institutions like Childline and SOS.
MP Boko, who is also the Leader of the Opposition said under the Children’s Act, government has to provide shelter and care for the troubled children and therefore it was government’s responsibility to provide a budget for the organisations.
Talking about the Youth Development Fund (YDF), he said it was not clear how many youths needed funding, how many were in line for it and how many have been funded.
MP for Selebi Phikwe West, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse said there was a need for the constitution to be reviewed as democracy was regressing at an alarming rate.
He said at Independence, Batswana did not fully participate in the drafting of the constitution as education was limited, there were no civil societies and academic organisations such as Law Society of Botswana had not been formed.
Mr Keorapetse said the current constitution gave the President too much powers which he said was tantamount to dictatorship.
He said the President appoint judges at the High Court, Court of Appeal and Industrial Court without involvement of any other party. He said recently five judges appointed by the Judicial Commission were rejected by the President.
He further said under the constitution, the President was immune, but in progressive countries such as the USA and South Africa, no one, including the President was above the law.
The Selebi Phikwe legislator also called for guarantee of press freedom and the transformation of Department of Broadcasting Services from a state to a public broadcaster. ENDS