18 Dec 2016

TheVice President, Mr Mokgweetsi Masisi, says President Lt Gen. Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama gave a robust and detailed account of  government during his delivery of the State-of-the-Nation Address recently.

Responding to the address on Thursday (December 15), Mr Masisi who is also MP for Moshupa-Manyana, said the President accounted in a remarkably different way from previous addresses of 1966, 1976, 1986  1996 and 2006, as the country was also turning 50 years and had to reminisce on the remarkable changes over the last five decades

He said the address, by its virtue, addressed the third session of the 11^th Parliament, whereby sitting head of state reports and accounts publicly in the National Assembly.

“President Dr Khama did that with accuracy and accountability,” he said.

He said it was unfortunate that some legislators  were selective in understanding  the contents of the President’s speech.

Mr Masisi further said Batswana should appreciate the democratic dispensation anchored on the value of consultation - debate, yielding or leading to consensus.

He said the current system of governance had kept the momentum of integrity and legitimacy that Botswana was known of.

On other issues, he said the Eeconomic Stimulus Programme (ESP) was put together to provide enablers for jobs and wealth to be created.  “You have never seen an economy where you pop jobs like lollypops and chewing gums - roads, bridges hospitals, clinics, offices and schools have got to be built and this is exactly what is going on,” he said.

Mr Masisi said the ESP provided opportunities for jobs because tenders had been awarded for construction of houses and clinics and that as at the end of last financial year, CEDA assisted 418 new enterprises and created 3000 new jobs.

He said it was expected that there would be in excess of 12 360 new jobs  as a result of new tenders awarded under the ESP, which he said was more than the intended 5 070 of the original plan.

Mr Masisi said the Youth Development Fund had also assisted well in excess of 1 032 projects creating close to 1 700 new jobs while 1200 youth further secured employment though CITF, thanks to the construction Industry Training Fund.

He added that the Lobatse Leather Park was also taking shape. He said focus in the new vision was to create Botswana that can be globally competitive.

‘’We are about to complete on August 2017, the backbone of high speed Data Broadband all over the country,” he said.

He said it had been identified as one of the enablers of ESP to assist young people who graduated to access funding from commercial banks and youth programmes through usage of the broadband.

Mr Masisi said there will be more opportunities in the ICT sector through BOFINET which avails huge spectrum of communication.

Further, Mr Masisi said the  President clearly articulated the challenges faced by the country in water and electricity and has acknowledged the problem in the energy sector, quantified it in terms of the magnitude of the power deficit  and came up with solutions.

He  said Botswana was not in isolation in terms of global  economic developments and challenges saying  that the BCL saga was blown out of proportion as some legislators claimed that the mine should have not been liquidated.

 “BCL was government’s commitment and that by the time of liquidation, employees continued to be paid by government,” he said. ENDS