11 Apr 2019

Parliament on April 10 passed the National Assembly Salaries and Allowances Amendment Bill.

Debating the proposals contained in the bill, MPs from across the political divide spoke in unison that the increments were overdue, given the nature and amount of work that MPs had to do.

Further, they observed that compared to MPs from countries within the region, those in Botswana were the least paid, hence it was important that their salaries be reviewed.

MP for Selebi Phikwe West, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse said it was sad that even countries that were worse off in terms of economic standing and per capita GDP fared better in terms of remunerating the MPs.

Mr Keorapetse noted that given the low pay of Botswana’s lawmakers, MPs were basically volunteers despite some of them having left their plum jobs to serve the nation in the area of politics.

In addition, he raised a concern about former legislators, saying the majority of them had retired into poverty because of the low pay.

MP Dorcas Makgato of Sefhare-Ramokgonami shared the sentiments that compared with those in other countries, local MPs were being grossly under-paid, a situation that she observed rendered Parliament unattractive to aspiring political representatives.

Ms Makgato noted that it was improper that the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker were currently being paid the same as ministers and assistant ministers despite their responsibilities being entirely different from those of the former.

MP for Boteti East, Mr Sethomo Lelatisitswe, who noted that it was good that efforts were being made to improve the plight of MPs, also suggested that councillors’ salaries also needed to be looked into as they too were being inadequately remunerated.

Mr Gilbert Mangole, Mochudi West MP, also hailed the bill, pointing out however that the increments were still low.

Mr Mangole said MPs were inundated with requests from different quarters within their constituencies, something that he said further stretched their meagre salaries.

He suggested that to cushion them from their difficult financial obligations to constituents, it was necessary that there be a vote given to constituency offices to cover such requests.

Tonota legislator, Mr Thapelo Olopeng and MP Noah Salakae of Ghanzi North concurred that salaries of local MPs were low when compared with those of their counterparts in countries in the region.

Letlhakeng-Lephepe lawmaker, Mr Liakat Kably cited the increase in constituency allowances as particularly welcome, especially that some constituencies were too vast.

Mr Ignatius Moswaane, Francistown West MP observed that MPs were under-paid yet they worked long hours.

Further, he said sitting allowances would still be paltry even after being increased, saying it would have been better for the allowance to have been raised to at least P800.

Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration minister, Mr Nonofo Molefhi had, when presenting the bill indicated that the proposed amendments sought to, among others, adjust the salaries of MPs by four per cent.

Moreover, he said it sought to delink the salaries of members of the National Assembly from that of the public service structure by eleven per cent, and to also adjust the constituency allowance by 50 per cent and to adjust fixed allowances, communication and hospitality allowances by 10 per cent.

Mr Molefhi further said the bill proposed to increase the sitting allowance of MPs to P450 per day, and to provide for sitting allowance of the Speaker at P600 per sitting and P500 for the Deputy Speaker.

Also, he proposed an increase of sitting allowances for chairpersons of committees to P500 per sitting. ENDS