03 Jun 2018

The third meeting of the fourth session of the 11th  Parliament will commence June 4 with the swearing in of  Member of Parliament for Mochudi East, Mr Moagi Molebatsi.

Mr Molebatsi won the recent bye-election that followed the death of the late MP for Mochudi East, Mr Isaac Davids.

According to the Speaker of National Assembly, Ms Gladys Kokorwe, this year’s meeting comes earlier than the usual period to pave way for the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Africa region Conference.

The CPA Africa region is part of the CPA International Organisation composed of countries that were formally under British rule.

Botswana will this year be hosting the 49th CPA Africa region Conference, whose president is Ms Kokorwe.

“We are starting earlier so that we create room for the conference, which will take place  after the Parliament sitting on July 13,” she said.

The winter parliamentary meeting, Ms Kokorwe said would look at 15 bills and 79 questions.

Of the 79 questions, 47 are those that remained from the previous sitting of Parliament while 32 are new.

Among the Bills expected to feature during the sitting is the Banking (Amendment) Bill, Number 18 of 2018, which is expected to be presented by Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Kenneth Matambo.

The objective of the Bill is to amend the Banking Act in order to harmonise Botswana’s banking legislation with international standards, in particular the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations on anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism.

The proposed amendment of the Banking Act follows the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG) that focuses on addressing issues of reporting of suspicious transactions and duty of confidentiality of a banker to the customer.

The bill shows the critical and urgent need for  Botswana to align her banking legislation to international standards in order to attain technical compliance.

Another Bill to be tabled during the sitting is the Proceeds and Instruments of Crime (Amendment) Bill, Number 10 of 2018, which intends to amend the Act to comply to ESAAMLG group in order to reduce the threshold from offences to which minimum penalty is a fine of P2 000 or imprisonment for a period of two years or both to an offence to which the minimum penalty is a fine of P500 or imprisonment for a period of six months or both.

Another Bill likely to be presented is the Counter Terrorism (Amendment) Bill, Number 27 of 2017, to be presented by the Minister for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration.

The objective of the Bill is to address some deficiencies by amending the Act to, among other things, criminalise the financing of individual terrorists and to provide for taking of hostages on separate offense.

The Bill also seeks to make amendments to allow for establishment of a committee that will recommend to the Minister as to which groups or persons should be referred as terrorists or terrorist groups. ENDS