04 Mar 2020

Member of Parliament for Maun East, Mr Goretetse Kekgonegile, has implored the Ministry of Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs to set targets for empowering women and girls.

Contributing to the ministry’s budget proposals, Mr Kekgonegile said gender equality issues should have action items and yardsticks to reduce gender based violence prevalence.

Mr Kekgonegile also stated that women empowerment programmes should include married women, who should also be allowed to participate in the economy as well.

He said married women were isolated and such anomaly needed to be corrected.

The Maun East legislator further condemned the rise of gender based violence.

He said government should be seen to be protecting women and children against gender-based violence.

Member of Parliament for Gaborone North, Mr Mpho Balopi also supported the proposals, saying the budget would address gender-based violence issues.

Mr Balopi noted that children in most times grew with absent fathers and eventually ended up as delinquents.

He applauded the ministry on its efforts to engage dikgosi and faith based organisations, adding that they played an important role in instilling societal morals and values.

Furthermore, Mr Balopi appealed to the ministry to extend operating hours at border posts to 12 midnight, adding that such extended hours would ease congestion at the border posts and ease trade.

For his part, Member of Parliament for Tati East, Dr Douglas Letsholathebe, requested that Omang offices be set up in his constituency, particularly at Tati Siding.

Dr Letsholathebe indicated that there were vacant government offices which could be used for such purposes.

He also urged the ministry to provide more public education regarding renunciation process, noting that people were clueless on such issues.

However, he appreciated visa reforms, saying the ministry was taking the transformation agenda seriously.
Responding to concerns raised by the MPs, Minister of Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs Ms Anna Mokgethi indicated that according to ‘Section 16 of Immigration Act, a person is required to renounce one of the citizenships when they reach age 21.’

However, she said most people failed to do that, nevertheless Ms Mokgethi indicated that her ministry held kgotla meetings across the country on issues of renunciation.

She said public education and sensitising was done across the country and people were further informed that they could apply for Citizenship under Section 17 of the Immigration Act, if they failed to renounce their citizenship.

Ms Mokgethi also noted that her ministry was in the process of reviewing the Dual Citizenship Act in the 2020/21 financial year, adding that consultations were ongoing with the public and stakeholders.

Regarding the SADC UniVisa, Ms Mokgethi indicated that SADC member states aimed at  making entry and travelling smooth among the states by removing impediments of visa restrictions.

However, she said Botswana continued to participate as an observer in the UniVisa meetings so as to get first-hand information on the UniVisa project. She noted that the discussion on the project was ongoing and implementation had not yet started.

Ms Mokgethi further indicated that government had established stiff penalties for rape and murder offences in an effort to address gender based violence.

Regarding the integrated system, Ms Mokgethi noted that they were in the process of producing an electronic identity card with a chip to facilitate uploading other services. ENDS