04 Mar 2020

Parliamentarians have thrown their weight Ministry of Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs request of over P477 million for recurrent budget and P101million for development budget.

In his submission, Member of Parliament for Good Hope/Mabule, Mr Eric Molale, said government should develop an integrated system that would incorporate all documents.

He said the national identity card was central to all government documents and services.

Consequently, Mr Molale suggested inclusion of a chip in the Omang document so as to be able to identify other documents.

Member of Parliament for Ghanzi South, Mr Motsamai Motsamai, called for setting up of  immigration office in Charleshill.

He said residents of Ncojane, Makunda, Kole, Charleshill and other areas in his constituency travelled long distance to Ghanzi for provision of passports.

Mr Motsamai also appealed to the ministry to extend provision of diplomatic and/or official passports to spouses of Member of Parliaments, Councilors, Cabinet Ministers as well as other senior government officials.

For his part, Molepolole South MP, Mr Kabo Morwaeng, also supported budget proposals saying the nationality ministry was crucial to the country’s economic growth.

He, therefore, said employees’ salaries and overtime should be improved to motivate them to deliver efficiently.

Mr Morwaeng further noted that maintenance and security of employees’ accommodation should also be of priority.

He further applauded the ministry’s efforts to engage organisations in the fight against gender-based violence and promoting gender equality.

He strongly condemned child molesters, saying government should have stern measures against them.

Francistown East legislator, Mr Buti Billy, called for dual citizenship in his support for the ministry budget proposals.

Mr Billy said dual citizenship could bring about new ideas and skills that could enable economic growth and diversity.

Mr Billy also said there was need to protect Botswana from issues of money laundering, and called on the minister to put in place restrictions and regulations on churches that were engaged in criminal activities.

For his part, Member of Parliament for Okavango, Mr Kenny Kapinga, also called for dual citizenship saying it was common practice in the modern world.

He said the process should be implemented if transformation was to be attained.

Mr Kapinga further appealed to the minister to prioritize the issue of Batswana descendants who are immigrants. He said many Batswana had been rendered stateless because they were born in a different country.

He noted that this situation was prevalent in border villages across Botswana, therefore urged the ministry to abolish this injustice.

He said it was dehumanising to be stripped off citizenship by one’s own country simply because they were associated with a country they had no emotional connection with.

He indicated that the majority of Batswana especially in the Okavango constituency were descendants of migrants, saying to this day there were those living peacefully and productively amongst Batswana.

He said some had been living in Botswana for more than 15 years, yet they were still sent on merry go round when asked to be accepted as citizens of this country.

Mr Kapinga, however, noted that they were aware of certain races in Botswana who find it easy to claim Botswana citizenship because of their economic clout, and called Minister to eliminate such unfairness.

In addition, Mr Kapinga said Botswana should adopt a SADC UniVisa which he said would benefit group tourism. Mr Kapinga who represents a Constituency that relies on tourism, indicated that a SADC UniVisa will enable them opportunities to flourish on tourism. ENDS