14 Dec 2016

Government has achieved a lot in terms of empowering Batswana, the Assistant Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Mr Biggie Butale has told Parliament.

Making his contribution to the debate on the State-of-the-Nation Address on Tuesday, Mr Butale said government had provided basic amenities that assisted in empowering citizens across the country.

“I have personally benefited from accessing free education from primary school right up until tertiary level, as is the case with every Motswana child. I have never lived or schooled in another country, but display the same levels of competencies as those who have been to the world’s top institutions. This is a great testament of the quality of our education and political system,” Mr Butale said.

The Tati West legislator said that while Botswana has made those strides in the empowerment of its citizens, the country is still faced with challenges, but expressed the hope that the electorate would not turn to “those who provide easy solutions to difficult problems.”

Mr Butale said that he is confident the government has the capacity to pursue workable long-term solutions to the challenges the country faces.

“Some of the critical areas that could be expediently explored to our benefit include the Trans Kalahari Railway, which admittedly would be a costly billion pula project but would offer diversification efforts a huge boost.

The Agro-Zambezi project, the use of our abundant coal reserves for downstream industries and power generation projects could also return us to double digit growth of the 1980s,” Mr Butale said.

He lauded the government for the Economic Diversification Drive (EDD) policy, which he said assists many small Batswana entrepreneurs through the procurement of their goods by government departments. Adding his worth to the debate, Okavango Member of Parliament (MP) Bagalatia Arone said that the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Duma Boko’s response to the SONA offered very little in terms of new ideas.

“The thematic areas have already been captured by the minister of Finance in his NDP 11 presentation, and there were no clear alternatives by Mr Boko. Having been on the other side of the isle in this parliament, I am not surprised as the prime purpose of the opposition is to oppose,” Mr Arone said.

He praised President Lt Gen. Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama for his stewardship of the country, saying that over 600 houses have been built for the poor through his Presidential Housing Initiative.

“Even if you may not like the President personally, you need to be fair in your assessment of his contribution to this country, which continues the effort made by his predecessors in the presidency. 

Unlike in some other resource rich countries where mineral wealth has turned out to be a curse, in Botswana we have managed to exploit our resources for the common good, extending basic amenities to the poorest rural communities, through the construction of roads, clinics, schools and water reticulation infrastructure,” Mr Arone said. ENDS