28 Nov 2017

Government has been commended for the various initiatives that were adopted during the tenure of office of President Lt Gen. Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama

In his contribution to the debate on the State Of the Nation Address (SONA), MP Patrick Ralotsia of Kanye North observed that while President Khama had assumed office at a difficult time when the world was hit by the global economic meltdown, government had done a lot to cushion Batswana against the effects of the downturn.

Mr Ralotsia said while other countries were downsizing their public service or failing to pay monthly salaries due to the recession, government instead introduced new programmes aimed at lessening the suffering of its people.

He extolled President Khama for his sound leadership, saying it was during his term of office that programmes such as LIMID and ISPAAD came into being; their objective being to offer Batswana, particularly those of lower economic standing, assistance in the agriculture sector.

Mr Ralotsia, also Minister of Agricultural Development and Food Security further said it was during the president’s term that the Botswana College of Agriculture (BCA) had been transformed into the Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (BUAN).

On developments in Kanye North, he noted that electricity had been reticulated to all the seven villages in the constituency.

Regarding roads, he said only Kgomokasitwa was yet to have a tarred road, thus appealing to government to consider tarring the road linking the village with the rest of the constituency.

On a different matter, the MP lamented what he termed political indiscipline in the country.

He said it had now become the norm for politicians particularly MPs to be moving from one party to the next.

He said it was worth noting that democracy went hand-in-hand with discipline, pointing out that people who lacked discipline could not be satisfactorily democratic.

For his part, Specially Elected MP and also Minister of Transport and Communications, Mr Kitso Mokaila stated that President Khama’s track-record spoke volumes of the kind of person he is.

Mr Mokaila said from his days at the BDF, the President had distinguished himself as someone who believed in seeing results hence his D on delivery.

On another point, Mr Mokaila  observed that despite having the Maitlamo national ICT policy in place, not much had for various reasons, been achieved in the ICT realm.

That, he said was notwithstanding the fact that ICT was one field through which a lot of jobs could be created.

Mr Mokaila also decried the high cost of data in the country.

He however noted that it was critical to take into consideration the capital cost of putting up the necessary infrastructure, which he said was presently quite prohibitive.

On yet another issue, he bemoaned the rate at which the country continued to lose its citizens to road accidents. BOPA