21 Feb 2019

 Kanye South Member of Parliament, Mr Abram Kesupile says Batswana attach great value to the presentation of the budget proposals because it offered an opportunity for their dreams to be made reality.

Contributing to the debate on the proposals for the 2019/20 financial year, Mr Kesupile said the fact that Batswana attached great importance to the budget was evidenced by their thronging of Parliament premises on the day of the speech, and their partaking of the speech through various platforms.

The MP, however, said despite Batswana always looking forward to the budget presentation with optimism, the recently presented proposals did not give solutions to the current challenges bedeviling the nation.

He said poverty, issues relating to people living with disability as well as delayed allocation of land were some of the challenges that Batswana grappled with on a daily basis which government ought to have addressed in the budget.

Mr Kesupile also expressed concern about the state of disrepair of infrastructure such as roads and health facilities, saying it was saddening that the taxes that Batswana continued to pay were not being used to keep the infrastructure in good shape. 

He attributed the lack of maintenance of infrastructure to, among other things, the misappropriation of funds allocated for such.

Jwaneng-Mabutsane lawmaker, Mr Shawn Ntlhaile argued that the budget did not bring any paradigm shift indicative of government’s intention and commitment to improve the plight of its people.

He noted that the country continued to be saddled with unemployment, poverty and income inequalities.

He said it was disappointing that the budget still contained the same policies that had created the problems that the country was grappling with at the moment.

Expressing gratitude for the projects implemented through the constituency development fund such as the paving of roads in his constituency, Mogoditshane MP, Mr Sedirwa Kgoroba nonetheless called on government to consider revising the guidelines for the fund.

He said local authorities were facing implementation challenges and that burdening them with implementing projects funded through the constituency development fund was proving to be a problem.

Mr Kgoroba also noted that Mogoditshane was battling a problem of shortage of land for various uses.

He said the population of Mogoditshane was growing at an alarming rate, but that there was no land to cater for such growth.  ENDS