26 Jan 2020

Kgalagadi South MP, Mr Sam Brooks says the ongoing petitions at the High Court dim Botswana’s shinning democracy. 

Speaking at a Kgotla meeting at Gakhibane, Mr Brooks called on  politicians to preserve Botswana’s  democracy and jealously safe guard the egalitarian ethos that the country was renowned for. 

He said 2019 General Elections petition cases were being heard at the High Court. 

MP Brooks noted that this was happening for the first time in Botswana’s history . He highlighted that the voting power belonged to the people and if indeed rigging occurred in some parts, it meant that the people had been robbed of their vote as they were the ones voting.

He said Botswana’s legacy was built on a strong democratic foundation that was laid by its forefathers hence the need to maintain it through continued principled practices. He added that in the next five years all should work collectively towards building Botswana for democratic and economic prosperity. 

Further, Brooks said nations looked up to Botswana and emulated the nation as a peaceful and a transparent state. 

He said all must fight to preserve the democracy legacy that was laid by the founding fathers. He said future generations should find the country moving progressively rather than reverse the gains made over the years. 

On other issues, Brooks thanked the people for their vote and implored all politicians, and the community to join hands together towards building Kgalagadi South constituency irrespective of political affiliation.  

He said he would advocate for tourism development in the constituency, road infrastructure development, healthcare facilities, and agro processing. 

The MP also said that Kgalagadi was the small stock hub hence the need to develop value chains and explore international markets to improve livelihoods. 

"Efforts were being made and plans were underway to equip primary schools with cold rooms to ensure that schools were facilitated hence the success of the primary schools feeding programme," he said. This, he said, presented producers with the opportunity to sell their produce to schools. 

For his part, Gakhibane Kgosi Giel Jacobs appreciated the MP’s visit as well as improved water situation in the village

However he said the water seemed to contain some harmful contents such as lime which caused damage to electric appliances such as kettles. Kgosi Jacobs called for stock feed subsidy for farmers to include other important feeds. 

He said  that some products were included in the subsidy while some were not, hence the need to re-look into the price subsidy. He said such animals as jackals should be controlled as they killed their small stock.

The Village Development Committee chairperson Ms Botho Mosarwe appreciated government for the Ipelegeng programme which she said had helped to alleviate poverty. However, she requested the MP to advocate for increase of the wages. She also appreciated the newly established water reticulation for livestock. 

On health, Ms Mosarwe called for the expansion of Tsabong Primary Hospital and for more specialists to be employed to reduce referrals to Gaborone as the distance between was vast. 

For his part Gakhibane councilor Mr Tirelo Pule requested MP Brooks to advocate for water treatment plant in Middlepits to be functional to improve the quality of drinking water. 

He said provision of services should not be left to Water Utilities Corporation alone and more was needed to be done to fast track the project. Furthermore, Mr Pule called for two service centers at Werda and Middlepits to bring services closer to the people. ends