05 Dec 2019

Boteti East MP, Mr Sethomo Lelatisitswe has called on government to consider including Boteti East under the Special Economic Zones (SEZA).

Contributing to the State-of-Nation Address, he said Boteti East was an area of significant economic importance. 

He added that given the area’s comparative advantages, it should be included under the SEZA so that it could also benefit from government’s development agenda with focus on identified areas such as education, agriculture, mining, health and tourism.

 Mr Lelatisitswe also argued that Boteti was overdue for another senior secondary school due to the fact that Letlhakane Senior Secondary School had an influx of pupils from the labour force and that it was a catchment school for the whole Boteti region.

He said there were major learning challenges, amongst them crowded classes, reduced efficiencies, shortage of various key learning resources and low output from both pupils and teachers.

He said it was about time to convert the junior secondary school in Rakops into an integrated school to reduce the burden on Letlhakane Senior Secondary School. 

He also said Letlhakane should get a new and bigger hospital as the current facility could not cope with the growing population. He also added that the hospital was old while catering for a wide constituency. 

 On gender issues, he said gender mainstreaming and Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) should be given priority, and that in an effort to fight HIV/AIDS, there was need to open dialogue and put in place strategies to promote and protect the rights of key populations.

He said health interventions, including legislation, policies and funding should take into account vulnerable and key populations that include, LGBTI and sex workers among others.

 With regards to agriculture development, MP Lelatisitswe said Boteti was ideal for agriculture because of her comparative advantage in terms of yields as the Western Sand Veldt continued to be the backbone of the local beef industry.  

He also called on government to address labour issues concerning mining to ensure that miners worked within secure and safe environments. 

He said as a Member of Parliament from a mining hub, he wished to see better working conditions for miners and adherence to occupational health and safety. 

“We would want to see better working conditions, more protection to cushion our people from retrenchments or companies closures, unfair labour practices such as unfair dismissals without recourse and end of contract dues. We cannot pride ourselves with being a top producer when we still have such cases,” he said.

Mr Lelatisitswe also advocated for diamond beneficiation and its funding so that Batswana could partake in mining-related businesses and empower local communities.

Furthermore, he said Boteti technical education institutions should be developed towards producing various expertise to service the mining industry. 

“Our mines need artisans by bucket loads and we have the experience to become self-sufficient and to even export skills produced by our technical colleges and brigades,” he said. Ends