11 Feb 2018

Member of Parliament (MP) for Gaborone South, Mr Kagiso Molatlhegi has advised government to spend more funds on developing the agricultural sector.

Speaking in Parliament last Wednesday, Mr Molatlhegi, who is also the deputy speaker of the National Assembly, said food production continues to be inadequate in the country while  import of food commodities had remained high.

He urged government to reverse the scenario by investing more on food production, stating that the proposed three per cent budget for the sector in the 2018/19 financial year was too low.

“I expected more money to be channeled on agriculture and food security. But it has been given three per cent of the budget which is low. Batswana know how to produce food and they should be supported,” Mr Molatlhegi said when debating the budget speech.

The MP said importing most food commodities had resulted in food prices being high, adding that producing locally would result in the reduction of food prices.

“I believe that if we produce more food for ourselves, food prices will go down,” he said.

Mr Molatlhegi also said more money should be spent on the transport and communications sector.

He said the priority should now be to expand the railway network.

“We have been expanding our road networks and airports. I believe is now time to expand the railway network around the country. If we can do that it will make it easier to transport goods around the country,” he said.

He also asked government to spend more on education in order to up-skill graduates so that they could become more competitive in the international market and to promote research and innovation.

The Gaborone South MP also complained about the poor implementation of government projects, saying he was surprised that the new Dibete Police Station buildings were already dilapidated.

He said the issue of poor implementation of projects should be addressed to avoid huge losses of money by government as a result of poorly constructed infrastructure.

Contributing to the debate, the MP for Shashe West, Mr Fidelis Molao praised the budget speech by finance and economic development minister, Mr Kenneth Matambo, saying it focused on important issues that would strengthen the economy, among them infrastructure development, land servicing, ICT and connectivity, immigration and work permits.

He urged government to expedite the provision of good road infrastructure and the improvement of water and electricity supply to more centres around the country. He said it would lead to more businesses setting up in those places which would help improve the economy.

Mr Molao complained that the project to improve water reticulation for villages in his constituency was taking long to start.

The MP added that it was important to prioritise the strengthening of Information Communication Technology (ICT) and Internet connectivity because Botswana was lagging behind in terms of ICT compared to countries like Uganda.

He also advised government to start building simple infrastructure that was not expensive to maintain, saying he believed that the current government buildings had been over-designed and expensive to maintain. Ends