13 Dec 2016

Parliament has been urged to table a Declaration of Assets Bill and pass it into law as a means to ensuring that the public has confidence in those who hold political office.

This plea came from the Member of Parliament for Tati East, Mr Samson Guma when giving his contribution to the State-of-the-nation address in Parliament on December 12.

Mr Guma said questions always arise about the business interests of people holding political office and if there was any undue interference in the awarding of government business.

“There is a lot of talk amongst the public about corruption, recently even I found myself being what I would call a victim of circumstance.

If we want to clear the air and regain public confidence, then we need a Declaration of Assets Bill.

It would do us a world of good if the public had a trail of our assets,” Mr Guma said.

He further said if the public loses trust in politicians, it erodes the strength of the democratic systems, which the country’s governance was anchored on.

“If politicians cannot be trusted, myself included, then the democratic process is at fault.

We should learn from other countries such as the United States of America, South Africa, and others that are worthy of benchmarking at.

They have instruments for the declaration of assets by public office bearers,” Mr Guma said.

He further said that those who hold senior office in the public service and parastatals should also declare assets to avoid any conflict of interest.

Mr Guma also called for the direct election of the president and the elimination of the automatic succession of a vice president upon a president retiring, stating that such reforms would further strengthen the democratic process.

“It is a generational issue; we must give due praise to our country’s founders, for they came up with instruments that worked well over the first 50 years of independence. But we need to ask ourselves what works best for the next 50 years and improve the democratic process through direct presidential elections,” Mr Guma said.

For his part, the Specially Elected Member of Parliament, Mr Mephato Reatile said the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) in its current state was not beneficial to farmers.

“The BMC is not under pressure to perform because it is a monopoly that is often bailed out by the government.

We need to bring other competitors into the domestic beef market so that we may improve the sales and competitiveness of our beef sector internationally,” Mr Reatile said.

He cited the example of neighbouring Namibia, which he said, had been able to penetrate the American market through having more than one player in its beef export industry.

Mr Reatile called for a law that makes it compulsory for all employers, including the government to pay a bonus salary or 13th cheque to employees across the board.

He said this would cushion employees from the dire situation they currently face with their wages being eroded by inflation. ENDS