14 Nov 2017

Member of Parliament for Shoshong, Mr Dikgang Makgalemele has urged fellow MP’s to encourage their constituents to tap into  government empowerment and Poverty Eradication programme.

Commenting on the State Of the Nations Address recently, he said there were success stories under the programme and other initiatives that should be replicated to different parts of the country and be tapped as EDD initiatives.

Mr Makgalemele acknowledged the upliftment of people’s lives, especially in his constituency where some areas such as Moralane, Mokgenene and Otse residents benefitted in some initiatives through the affirmative action as well as the Tobela mini-grid.

“President Khama has personally ensured that the programmes  aimed at helping Batswana are in place,” he said.

Mr Makgalemele further called his counterparts to encourage their electorate to discuss health and wellness issues at household level.

He said while government had initiated the Health-in-All-Policies approach, which sought to reduce health inequities, it was everyone’s responsibility to ensure messages were well spread.

“I appeal to you colleagues to mobilise communities to timely and regularly undertake tests and to do Safe Male Circumcision,” he said.

 Meanwhile,  Selebi Phikwe West legislator, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse has commended President Lt Gen. Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama for his commitment to retire next April.

He said unlike other African leaders who sit tight and show no signs of retiring, while some die in office, he has shown his commitment to agreeing to retire. He however said politics of dynastic successions no longer have a place in modern history.

Mr Keorapetse further said during President Khama’s tenure, not much has been done, especially in the area of  job creation.

He said the ruling party has failed to create the 100 000 jobs as promised, saying most graduates work as interns, while some were serving under the Tirelo Setshaba scheme.

He suggested  that government should fill the vacant posts within government and employ special constables as permanent police officers. He said poverty levels continued to soar as currently the country that is well resourced with minerals has about 20 per cent of its population under the poverty datum line.

“We need a marshal plan for economic transformation in this country, otherwise economic prosperity is a far-fetched dream. We cannot apply business as usual because there is nothing robust which shows that there is an intention to turn things around,” he said.

He said accolades that Botswana was an African miracle were baseless and misleading.  

Mr Keorapetse further decried that the closure of BCL mine has impacted negatively on the people of Selebi Phikwe and surrounding areas.

He said closure of the mine was a big blunder by government as most subsidiary companies that depended on the mine can hardly survive. BOPA