05 Dec 2019

Member of Parliament for Kgalagadi South, Mr Sam Brooks has pleaded with government to develop infrastructure at the Kgalagadi Transfonteir Park.

Contributing to the State-of-the-Nation Address, Mr Brooks said it was important for government to construct user-friendly roads leading to the park in order to accommodate locals who could not afford off-road vehicles.

 He stated that government needed to invest in infrastructure development in the Transfrontier Park in an effort to boost and sustain the environment, eco-tourism and economic growth while involving local communities.

He said the signing of the memorandum between Botswana and South Africa in 1997 which marked part of the exciting cross-border initiatives currently unfolding in Southern Africa for the development and management of Transfrontier Parks and Transfrontier Conservation Areas, provided a glimpse of hope for residents of Kgalagadi.

“With the worldwide growth in the eco-tourism industry,  the Transfrontier Parks offered an opportunity to optimise the abundance of fauna and flora that both countries have to offer to the benefit of local communities,” he said.

 He, however, complained that the park was economically beneficial to  South African communities living along it while the same could not be said about the Botswana side. He said a lot of economic activities were centred at the South African side of the park as it was more resourced.

He said there was an urgent need for government to carry out works related to the construction and renovation of housing for park guards, visitor centres and other facilities as well as construction of paths and viewpoints in order to lure tourists to the Botswana side of the park.

 He said good infrastructure and telecommunication facilities as well as trained human resources were needed for the development of sustainable tourism and conservation in the Transfrontier Parks.

On other issues, Mr Brooks applauded the Rural Development Council for the role it has played in uplifting the livelihoods of his constituents, particularly in Khuis with the construction of the Lobu Field station ranch which was established in 1978 to support farmers and encourage them to practise good animal husbandry, specifically small stock. 

He, however, pleaded with Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (BUAN) to establish an office at Lobu for easy research on how best to maximise the resources at Lobu.

 Mr Brooks also urged Botswana Tourism Organisation to consider relocating the annul Kalahari 1 000 kilometre Toyota Desert Race to Khawa to keep the flow of tourism influx even in the absence of the Khawa dune challenge.

 He said the Khawa terrain made the place ideal for hosting the Toyota Desert Race.

With regard to health care in his constituency, Mr Brooks applauded efforts made by the Ministry of Health and Wellness in providing health posts in most all settlements, but encouraged the ministry to consider speeding up the upgrading of the Tsabong Primary Hospital to a full hospital and increase it to 70 beds carrying capacity.

  For his part, Serowe North legislator, Mr Baratiwa Mathoothe said it was worrying that the Serowe milk processing facilities remained underutilised.

 Mr Mothoothe said it was disturbing that the country was frequently faced with milk shortage crisis while the Serowe milk centre was not performing to its full potential. 

He encouraged farmers in the Serowe area to venture into dairy farming.

The Serowe milk centre, he said, had the potential to create jobs around Serowe and other areas as it could also do milk processing to create milk by-products.

Still on agriculture, Mr Mathoothe pleaded with the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security to fully utilise the Serowe underground water by drilling boreholes that could be leased out to farmers for agro-business irrigation.

 He said his constituency had the potential to be the country’s food basket hub due to its fertile soils and abundance of underground water.

 He also decried the bad state of the Serowe internal roads, something which he said contributed to low investor turn out in Serowe.

The Serowe North MP also encouraged government to fast track the facilitation of the opening of the Serule-Gojwane uranium mine project.

 He said ore mining and processing uranium at the said mine would not only create jobs for locals, but would help in contributing to the country’s economy.

He cautioned that there was no excuse which could contribute to the delay in the project commencement since it was ideally located in proximity to Botswana’s main north-south infrastructure corridor, which comprised of a sealed all-weather highway and a railway line between Gaborone and Francistown. 

He said power supply had been proposed from a  power line running north west from the Serule switching station to the Orapa mine. Ends