17 Feb 2019

Tati West MP and Assistant Minister of Health and Wellness, Mr Biggie Butale has called for the discontinuation of some economic empowerment initiatives such as Ipelegeng and those on youth funding saying they were not bringing in any desirable results save to consume government funds.

Mr Butale, who was contributing to the debate on budget allocations for the 2019/20 financial year on February 14, described the programmes as a rudimentary way of trying to improve peoples’ lives.

Making reference to the Ipelegeng programme, he said it was unacceptable for Batswana to be cutting grass in the 21^st century, saying the results of such an undertaking did not last especially during rainy seasons.

Raising a different point, the lawmaker said government should consider investing in research and development.

He said failure to put money into research and development would eventually catch up with the country, as it would have to spend a lot more buying the ideas and patents it could have shaped and developed.

Mr Butale also raised concern about the attitude of Batswana toward productivity.

Noting that Batswana were not well-known for high productivity levels, he said it was disappointing that the effort by Botswana over the last 40 years to copy productivity models of countries such as Singapore had produced minimal results.

He said it was worth noting that increasing productivity levels of the labour sector was one way of growing the economy.

Francistown South legislator Mr Wynter Mmolotsi expressed concern at what he termed rampant violation of labour rights in Botswana.

 He said workers no longer had any job security as employers fired them arbitrarily and often did not remunerate them accordingly.

He implored government to consider hiring more labour inspectors to enforce compliance to labour laws.

On health, the MP condemned the shortage of equipment in health facilities, adding that in cases where the equipment was there, it was often out of order and not being serviced as would be expected.

Mr Mmolotsi said there was also a dire shortage of medical personnel particularly doctors and medical specialists.

He said it was sad that patients were being subjected to long waiting periods to be seen by specialists, stating that at times the waiting periods took as long as four years.

Mr Mmolotsi said as a resulting of the long waiting periods, many patients often lost their lives in the interim.

Regarding the education sector, the MP observed that the budget did not speak to some challenges of the sector such as over-crowding in classrooms.

He said despite the 1994 Revised National Policy on Education’s recommendation that classes should comprise of 35 pupils, there were instances where classes were made up of 60 pupils.

To address the problem, he said government should consider several strategies such as splitting existing classes and establishing unified secondary schools.

These, he said, would also help create employment for graduate teachers roaming the streets. 

MP Masego Segokgo of Tlokweng also expressed discontent at the rate of unemployment, particularly among the youth.

Mr Segokgo said because of the situation, many Batswana had become despondent, saying the failure by the budget to address the issue of unemployment had served to only worsen the gloom of the unemployed as it had become clear that their plight would not change anytime soon.

On education, he said it was worrying that despite the sector getting higher allocations, the pass rate in schools continued to decline. ENDS