27 Nov 2018

In order to further strengthen the country’s democracy, Botswana needs robust institutions that can safeguard civil liberties and guard against abuse of power, Ghanzi North Member of Parliament, Mr Noah Salakae has said.

Speaking in Parliament on November 26 while giving his response to the State-of-the-Nation-Address (SONA), Mr Salakae said instead of promoting powerful individuals, the country needed to build strong institutions that could leave a lasting legacy of a robust democracy.

“There is a tendency to promote strong individual leaders in positions of power. But what we need are strong institutions that can continuously safeguard our democracy; we need clear separation of powers, the judiciary must not only be independent, but also be seen to be independent.  The DCEC (Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime) should also be autonomous,” Mr Salakae said.

He added that the country needed a politically conscious voting public as well as strong civil society groups that could ensure that all the voices in society were heard on different issues of governance, human rights and various areas of development.

He also said the opposition deserved credit for contributing to national stability, stating that they had participated in the country’s democratic systems since independence, and even in continuously losing elections and strongly disagreeing with governing party practice, have remained patriotic, unlike in many other countries where the opposition have ‘engineered instability.’

Praising Leader of the Opposition, Advocate Duma Boko and Leader of the Minority Party, Mr Ndaba Gaolathe for what he called their ‘measured brilliance’ in responding to SONA. Mr Salakae also called on the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) and Alliance for Progressives to work on uniting in order to challenge the governing Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) at the polls.

He said it was the fundamental function of any government to promote peace, and in order to ensure that the tranquility the country enjoyed continued, the BDP, as the governing party, needed to manage differences between its leaders who should know at all times that even in having positions of power, their interests were not bigger than that of the republic.

Mr Salakae lamented that although Botswana was a sparsely populated country the size of France, many Batswana were struggling to have access to land for residential, commercial and agricultural purposes.  

He said an artificial land shortage had been created because the government had failed to oversee proper distribution of land.

He said many young professionals in his constituency were struggling to become first time homeowners or to access land in order to engage in entrepreneurial activities, which only served to disempower them.

Meanwhile, MP Salakae pleaded with President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi to allow supplementary registration for the 2019 general elections.

He said most Batswana did not register during the recent registration exercise. He said Batswana must be allowed to decide the development path of the country, and that giving them a second chance to register would be ideal.

On the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, Mr Salakae said government had to work hard to combat the violence meted out against women and children, whom he said beared the brunt of most of the gender-based violence in the country. ENDS