24 Mar 2019

Jwaneng/Mabutsane legislator has advised government to come up with a rental control policy so as to cushion Batswana against the high rentals imposed by private house owners.

Debating the 2019/20 budget proposals for the Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing Development recently, MP Shawn Ntlhaile said the current situation where rentals remained uncontrolled impoverished Batswana as their income got eroded by the high cost of accommodation.

Mr Ntlhaile said housing was a right and not a privilege, hence government had to do its utmost to ensure that people had access to affordable housing.

Further, he observed that Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC) had failed to provide enough housing to Batswana, consequently forcing them to rent out expensive housing units from private owners.

MP for Palapye, Mr Moiseraele Goya said it was necessary to liberalise the housing market by allowing the private sector to also play a role instead of burdening the BHC with the responsibility to provide housing alone.

In addition, Mr Goya advocated for public officers to be availed a meaningful housing allowance that could allow them build houses for themselves.

That, he said, would promote home ownership and in turn reduce the burden on government to construct and maintain houses for its employees.

Furthermore, he said time had come for Botswana to move away from the traditional brick and mortar way of building houses and explore alternative construction methods so as to minimise costs associated with building and maintaining houses.

Adding on to the debate, Moshupa-Manyana lawmaker, Mr Karabo Gare urged government to protect BHC from competition from foreign-owned property development companies.

On a different matter, Mr Gare indicated that the Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing Development needed to have a legal division to deal with the many cases often launched against it by contractors.

MP Tawana Moremi of Maun West on one hand condemned the level of infrastructure in the country.

He said when measured against other African countries, Botswana was clearly lagging behind in infrastructure development.

Contributing to the debate, MP for Ghanzi North Mr Noah Salakae said some people in Ghanzi had been dispossessed of their ploughing fields by BHC without being compensated.
He said this was disheartening as government was supposed to protect its people instead of pushing them into poverty.

Contributing to the debate, Gaborone North MP, Mr Haskins Nkaigwa pleaded with BHC to speed up housing allocation, particularly in urban areas where ‘a lot do not have a roof over their heads.’

He said it was disappointing that BHC had spent P165 million in SHHA turnkey development scheme and yet lack of accommodation remained dominant in urban areas.

MP Nkaigwa therefore highlighted the need to undertake robust measures to ensure that the provision of housing units to Batswana remained the corporation’s top priority.

Nata/Gweta legislator, Mr Polson Majaga commended the ministry for engaging youth companies and individuals with technical vocation training in the rehabilitation and refurbishment of government facilities.

The youth employment reservation programme, he said, has contributed immensely in uplifting the livelihoods of youth, particularly in rural settlements where lack of employment was rampant.

Mr Majaga called on the ministry to extend the implementation of the Poverty Alleviation and Housing Programme, whose objective was to assist those below the SHHA income bracket to build homes.

The implementation of the aforementioned programme in his constituency, he said, would come in handy in assisting the poverty stricken communities in his constituency as majority were below the SHHA income bracket. Ends