21 Aug 2020

Francistown South MP, Mr Wynter Mmolotsi, has called for prioritisation of youth empowerment initiatives.

Mr Mmolotsi said this in his contribution to mid term review of National Development Budget Plan 11 (NDP) that was presented by the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Dr Thapelo Matsheka.

Mr Mmolotsi said while the public health system, agriculture and mining sectors called for prioritisation, there was also a need to consider talent from the youth.

“Talent among the youth should be recognised and improved as it can take the country to another level,” he said

Mr Mmolotsi said during lockdown, youth came up with creative concepts on performing arts activities and created different applications.

“Youth should be empowered. This will give them a room to improve their talent to be consumed locally and internationally, we can bank on them instead of engaging foreign companies on information communication and technology and other issues,” he said.

On another note, Mr Mmolotsi called on the need to empower researchers, saying the COVID-19 pandemic called for their interventions and therefore, they should be equipped with adequate resources so that they come up with ways to help fight the pandemic.

“We should emulate what other countries are doing, their researchers are trying ways to fight this pandemic, locally we also have seasoned doctors and scientists who can come up with something concrete, we have to empower them and give them a chance to fight,’’ he said. He further said the Mid Term Review for NDP 11 came at the right time as this would help identify areas that needed more focus especially that the current pandemic had given a lesson to fight for self-dependency on different sectors..

Mr Mmolotsi also called on the need to revamp internal roads especially in cities and towns so as to lessen congestion.

He said people took long time in traffic from home to their work areas arguing that traffic congestion crippled production.

Ngami MP, Mr Cater Hikuama  was also in support of the mid term review, saying the country intended to transform the economy from resource to knowledge based.

He sais there was need to prioritise on quality education. ENDS