18 Feb 2018

Gaborone Central Member of Parliament, Dr Phenyo Butale says government should give comprehensive attention to employment creation.

The legislator pointed in Parliament on Wednesday that unemployment, particularly among the youth, had remained a national challenge, which must be addressed.

He expressed concern when debating the 2018/19 budget speech, that while the issue continued to be a ticking time bomb, the budget speech by the Minister of Finance and Economic Development failed to provide detailed explanation of how it would be addressed.

“The budget speech is an opportunity for the minister of finance to address current burning issues affecting our country.

I expected that it should address issues like unemployment.

I have said this many times that unemployment; more especially youth unemployment, is a ticking time bomb.

We don’t give it the necessary attention and I thought this budget should have specifically and much more comprehensively addressed this issue,” the Alliance for Progressives (AP) legislator explained.

Furthermore, he said the budget should have shown clearly how government would address what he called the ‘plummeting standards and results’ in the education system and poverty in the society.

There is a need for a measure by government to define poverty so that when it tackles poverty, it knows exactly what it is looking to address, he said.

“In the absence of such description this whole description of living under one dollar a day will not help us,” he said.

He said the number of people joining the social safety programmes had continued to increase despite government’s efforts of combating poverty.

He said this should be a warning sign that the fight against poverty is not a successful one.

Dr Butale further said the budget as a policy tool should had adequately addressed the current social ills bedevilling the nation such as drug abuse.

“I thought also the budget speech as a policy tool should have addressed the issue of the work force that continues to have low morale, where productivity is going down,” he added.

Meanwhile, MP for Ghanzi North, Mr Noah Salakae on the other hand advised government to commit more funds for provision of infrastructure in areas with good potential for agriculture to develop the sector.

He said the agriculture sector has big potential to create more employment opportunities and generate money for the country.

“We should improve agricultural infrastructure.

There should be roads and electricity in places that can be production units like Qabo and Grootlaagte in my constituency,” the legislator advised.

He said farmers there have a difficulty reaching the market because of lack of good roads.

Mr Salakae further urged government to develop a solar power plant in the district to service farmers with electricity.

He also urged government to end the beef exporting monopoly by Botswana Meat Commission because it disadvantages many cattle producers. Ends