23 Mar 2017

Member of Parliament for Shoshong, Mr Dikgang Makgalemele has urged the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing Development to update Parliament on the policy which allowed the private sector to provide public officers with accommodation.  

Debating the 2017/18 financial year budget for the ministry in Parliament on March 21, MP Makgalemele said that made it easy for the private sector to provide housing to public officers and said he wondered what happened to the programme.

He said currently public officers ended up not taking their posts in rural areas because of lack of accommodation.

Gaborone Bonnington South MP, Mr Ndaba Gaolathe said the mandate of the ministry was to create a system which would enable Batswana to afford housing at low cost.

He said studies had shown that people lived in overcrowded houses.

MP Gaolathe also said SHHA would not yield desired results because it was under funded.

Specially Elected MP, Mr Mephato Reatile said he was happy that the youth owned contractors have been awarded projects.

MP Samuel Rantuana of Ramotswa said the funds allocated to the ministry were inadequate and wondered why the Ministry of Lands and Housing was split saying the two functions were related.

MP Rantuana further said he wondered how Botswana could have 3 600 registered engineers and said this showed the need to produce more engineers since there were many engineering fields.

MP Biggy Butale of Tati West said the registration of engineers had helped to weed out fly by night engineers who cheated Batswana of their hard earned money.

He said he was happy because his constituency had benefited through ESP projects and urged government to set up its own company to undertake infrastructure development.

MP Patrick Ralotsia of Kanye North said there were many old buildings in Kanye which should be allocated to other government departments.

MP Ralotsia said Ntlhantlhe was strategically located to offer boarding facilities for people working in either Gaborone or Lobatse and called upon the minister to quickly secure a plot for BHC for future property development.

For his part, Gaborone Bonnington North MP, Mr Duma Boko said there should be minimum standards that define housing for a decent Motswana.

He said Gaborone rentals were too expensive especially for public officers as they ranged from P3 000 to P5 000.

MP Boko said the minister had mentioned that 114 SHHA units had been built in Block 7 but did not state the total number of applicants saying there was need to know the total number of people who were in desperate need of housing. ENDS