04 Feb 2019

Minister of Finance and Economic Development Mr Kenneth Matambo says government will continue to improve national security structures and frameworks in order to deal with emerging security threats.

Presenting the 2019/20 budget speech yesterday, Mr Matambo said government continued to undertake comprehensive campaigns geared towards prohibition, prevention, combating and investigation of human trafficking as part of the implementation of the Anti-Human Trafficking Act of 2014.

Mr Matambo said in addition to the campaigns, the Anti-Human Trafficking Action Plan had been put in place to ensure effectiveness and efficiency of initiatives implemented going forward.

He also stated that the increasing intensity of distribution and use of illicit drugs and escalating rape, murder and robbery cases were a major concern in the country.

However, he pointed out that the Botswana Police Service (BPS) had been committed in fighting those crimes, and there was an ongoing capacity- building project dabbed Safer City aimed to enhance efficiency of BPS in providing world class policing, better public safety and security services to the public.

Mr Matambo also mentioned that BPS had intensified nation-wide efforts against stock theft through the KgomoKhumo campaign, adding that the campaign had started and was yielding positive results in apprehending perpetrators, saying that would continuously be intensified.

The minister said through NDP 11, government was committed to capacitating Botswana Defence Force to address emerging threats to public safety.

For that reason, he said resources would continue to be availed to the army in the 2019/2020 financial year, for capacity building, human resource development and infrastructure development, including maintenance and upgrading of existing equipment.

Regarding transparency and accountability, Mr Matambo said to demonstrate commitment to such principles, reports of parliamentary committees must be tabled and discussed in Parliament.

He said in order to intensify the fight against corruption, government had planned to present a Bill on the Declaration of Assets and Liabilities to Parliament at its July/August meeting. Ends