20 Feb 2018

Molepolole North MP, Mr Mohammed Khan, has expressed concern that Molepolole appeared to  be sidelined from basic infrastructure developments.

Commenting on the 2018/2019 budget proposals, Mr Khan said there were a number of things that were not being done appropriately and needed to be addressed regarding the distribution of finances to various ministries.

He said basic infrastructure development was one of the main basic principles in budgeting, ‘and that is where we have to identify priority areas.’

Such priority areas, Mr Khan said should be identified by population, ‘particularly for areas like Molepolole, which is known as a major village in terms of its population of more than 76 000 people.’

Being the most populated village, he said Molepolole should be given priority in terms of basic infrastructure development, such as water, sewerage system, roads, police station, hospital or health facilities, storm water drainage systems and schools.

Instead, Mr Khan said a number of areas with smaller population than Molepolole had some of the basic infrastructure, such as Tonota, Shoshong and Ramotswa and  ‘this shows Molepolole has been sidelined.’

“I don’t know how our budgeting is done, where sewerage systems are developed in areas like, Kanye, Palapye and Mahalapye and Dibete before Molepolole. And in Molepolole, a major and old village for that matter, we don’t have a sewerage system and again we have a very small and old police station, that you can’t even operate in or call it a police station,” he said.

With a population of over 76 000, Molepolole North MP said Molepolole was a priority area for basic infrastructure development.

That, he said was fundamental, ‘it’s a principle and I don’t have to say it, because any government, anywhere in the world, will develop an area where the most population is, but we don’t have that.’

“So, I feel very hurt, as a Mokwena, that we are being sidelined,” he added.

He pointed out that it was the Ministry of  Finance and Economic Development’s responsibility, as it was duty bound, to take care of the monitoring and evaluation of the national budget process, by ensuring that approved projects were done on time, as planned, and not carried right up to the next NDPs.

MP for Molapowabojang, Dr Alfred Madigele said unlike some state owned enterprises that were currently not doing well, Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority and Botswana Telecommunications Corporation Limited were doing well.

However, he said Botswana Meat Commission was not doing well and government needed to seriously probe BMC and find out what its main problem was.

He said the budget was silent on increasing roads in the Southern region, which posed a challenge, more especially in the agricultural sector, as some ploughing fields and farms were inaccessible due to bad road conditions. Infrastructure development, more especially in terms of road construction, he said could also help in job creation.

Additionally, Dr Madigele said it was not surprising that there was currently poor water supply by Water Utilities Corporation in the country, given the extent of water supply challenges in the country, ‘more especially in my constituency.’

The World Bank, he said, recently approved P1.5 billion loan for an Emergency Water Security and Efficiency Project in Botswana, saying there was need to speed up this project, as people were suffering due to unavailability of water in some areas.

He said the corporation seemed to be not well capacitated or well-resourced to perform its mandate, which he said needed to be addressed.

For that reason, he said, WUC should also try revisiting the Water Master Plan to see where the problem was.

Currently, he said villages in his constituency such as Mmathethe, Mogojogojo, Maisane and Mosamowakwena were faced with serious shortage of water. Ends