08 May 2017

The Speaker of the National Assembly, Ms Gladys Kokorwe recently visited Cuba to strengthen  bilateral relations between the two countries parliaments. Addressing the media after the visit, Ms Kokorwe said the main purpose of the visit was to strengthen relations.

“As you may be aware, Botswana and Cuba have enjoyed excellent bilateral cooperation at national and multilateral levels since 1977, while the Parliament of Botswana has enjoyed cordial relations with the Cuban People’s Power Assembly for years,” she said.

Ms Kokorwe was invited by the Speaker of the National Assembly of People’s Power of Cuba.

She was accompanied by MPs Mr Christiaan De Graaff, Mr Sedirwa Kgoroba, Mr Buti Billy and the clerk of the National Assembly.

Ms Kokorwe said the two countries agreed to maintain the tradition of regular visits and extensive exchanges of views by the two Parliaments as well as exploring the possibility of forming a friendship group between the Parliaments.

Ms Kokorwe also noted that she visited the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) where issues of women empowerment, health issues on women, and how the two Parliaments could promote gender equality were discussed.

The delegation also visited the Latin American School of Medicine and held talks with the school management as well as Batswana students who are training to be medical doctors.

Ms Kokorwe said they also visited institutions that had the potential to benefit Batswana, noting some as the ministries of health and culture as well as the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation and the Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.

“The visit was successful as we were able to learn best practices that we can adopt to strengthen legislation for those portfolios, oversight activities and our representation work as parliamentarians.

The information we got from the various institutions in Cuba will also benefit Batswana, as it provided innovative ways of tackling health, education and gender issues of which we are grappling with,” said Ms Kokorwe.

Meanwhile, Ms Kokorwe highlighted that during the current break in parliamentary business, she would embark on taking Parliament to the people by educating Batswana about the institution and its activities through kgotla meetings countrywide.

She said the purpose of the programme was to give the public an opportunity to learn how Parliament worked, and to strengthen citizen participation in the business of Parliament as well as to promote relations between MPs and their constituents.

However, Ms Kokorwe noted that during the recess period, Parliament business was not over as parliamentary committee meetings continue to be attended by MPs. She said the Public Accounts Committee Wildlife, Tourism, Natural Resources and Climate Change Committees continued their duties. BOPA