16 Feb 2017

Member of Parliament for Takatokwane, Mr Ngaka Ngaka has asked government to include more people from marginalised communities under the Affirmative Action Programme.
Commenting on the budget speech on Wednesday, Mr Ngaka said while the programme catered for marginalised communities living in remote area settlement, there were people of mainly Basarwa origin living within mainstream communities who needed to be assisted through the programme as well.
He said such people, though existing within or on peripheries of bigger villages, livde under tough conditions.
Therefore, he suggested that they should benefit from affirmative action assistance just like some Basarwa living in settlements such as Kaudwane in Kweneng West.
“We should expand it to cover more people.
There are people of Basarwa origin living in villages, who are facing challenges and they should be assisted through affirmative action,” the Botswana Democratic Party legislator said.
MP Ngaka further called on government to prioritise rural communities severely affected by lack of developments.
He expressed concern that Khudumelapye village in his constituency has been hit by shortage of water since 2011 but nothing was being done to address the issue.
Furthermore, he complained about lack of a tarmac road between Letlhakeng and Khudumelapye village, which has a population of more than 3 000 people.
Contributing to the debate, MP for Ghanzi North, Mr Noah Salakae, accused government of resorting to taxation to raise revenue using Batswana after failing to diversify the economy.
MP Salakae opposed the proposed review of tax administration, arguing that, “The minister has failed to diversify the economy away from minerals and he is now going to take money away from Batswana through tax.”
The Umbrella for Democratic Change legislator said government should introduce a minimum wage of P3 500 and abolish the A and B salary scales in the civil service, because low salaries have plunged many workers into poverty.
“We need to address income poverty. We need as a matter of urgency, to do a problem analysis and to set a minimum wage of P3 500,” he said.
He also asked government to liberalise the beef export industry by removing BMC monopoly and allowing more people to build export abattoirs which sell to the international market.
Mr Salakae also said P1 million should be a cut from the Ministry of Defence, Justice and Security budget to finance purchase of chairs and text books for primary and secondary schools. ENDS