03 Sep 2020

 Member of Parliament for Bobonong, Mr Taolo Lucas says for effective economic diversification, investors should be lured to villages.

When contributing to NDP 11 mid-term review debates in Parliament, Tuesday, under  the thematic area of social upliftment, he said foreign investment should not be focused only in towns and cities.

Mr Lucas indicated that foreign investors had to be educated about the available investment opportunities in villages, adding that this would develop those areas and create employment opportunities for communities.

He also highlighted the need for NDB, LEA and CEDA offices to be strategically located around the country so that communities could easily access their services. Bobonong legislator urged local government ministry  to transform Bobirwa in to a full district since it covered a vast area with a large population.

He also suggested that government should increase all allowances such as destitute, old age and disability allowances as well as Village Development Committee members’s allowances .

For his part, MP for Molepolole North, Mr Oabile Regoeng said Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security should find out why food production had drastically declined.

“All that is needed for agriculture sector to feed the nation is there, such as personnel and land, hence the need to find out why the sector is not doing well,” he added.

Therefore, he advised that the ministry  should set a target such as the amount of harvest it needs to achieve in a certain year and work towards attaining it.

Mr Regoeng said Institute of Health Sciences in his area was not fully utilised, adding that there was only one course of study (General Nursing) offered at the college despite being a state of the art facility with a capacity to enroll a large number of students under different fields of study.

“What is the use of having such a facility if it is not fully utilised? There are lots of Form Five leavers  roaming the streets who could be enrolled,” he said.

He indicated that the hospital was also not fully utilised because of lack of equipment and a lot of patients were still transferred to Princess Marina Hospital, adding that the hospital was big enough to relief Gaborone and other areas if they had necessary equipment.

Mr Sam Brooks, MP for Kgalagadi South, indicated that his constituency needed a hospital since it was far from areas with good health facilities and services.

He indicated that Tsabong Hospital was not in a good condition, hence a lot of patients were transferred to Gaborone, which put patients’ lives at risk.

Even healthcare personnel are not enough, which also makes it difficult for the people to be afforded proper healthcare services, he said.

Regarding the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Mr Brooks said the ministry should find out why most of youth-funded businesses failed and address that, adding that some youth were not passionate about their businesses.

Mr Motsamai Motsamai of Ghanzi South urged  government to carry out an extensive forensic audit on how COVID-19 funds were utilised, arguing that there was lack of some medical necessities  such as protective clothing.

He highlighted the need to connect electricity in some health posts and clinics in his constituency, noting that a health facility could not effectively operate without electricity.

Tati East MP, Dr Douglas Letsholathebe highlighted that for the country to effectively fight  COVID-19, there was need for reliable water.

He said there was shortage of water in some areas in his constituency, hence the ministry responsible should come up with short term plans to address the issue, such as providing water through bowsing to areas where there was acute shortage of water.

He urged agriculture ministry to make Tati East a special case in terms of agricultural programmes since there was not much farming land in the area. “There should be special programmes for people in areas with limited land,” he said.

Dr Letsholathebe also said it was important for roads from farms to be in a good condition to make it easy for farmers to transport their produce to markets.

For his part, MP for Shoshong, Mr Aubrey Lesaso urged  Minister of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism,  to assist  Shoshong village with tourism issues since it had rich history.

Mr Lesaso advised that government infrastructure development and maintenance should be carried out by one ministry. “Other ministries should draw up their plans and submit to the responsible ministry,” he added.

He said this would afford other ministries the opportunity to effectively deliver on their mandate. Ends