16 Feb 2021

Mahalapye needs a new bus rank as the current one is crowded and prone to floods, says the Member of Parliament for Mahalapye West, Mr David Tshere.

Debating the 2021/22 budget proposals, Mr Tshere said efforts to construct the bus rank through Public Private Partnership (PPP) model failed.

He said Mahalapye was one of the first villages in the country to have streetlights but currently only 20 per cent of them were functional.

MP Tshere however said the budget speech was not clear on how the COVID -19 pandemic had impacted the economy and lives of Batswana, save that foreign reserves had been depleted and economy had declined by 25 per cent.

He further said he supported the finance minister in reducing the number of state owned enterprises and decried the poor performance of Botswana Power Corporation (BPC).

MP Tshere said Morupule B power plant had been under construction for more than 10 years but government had not fully realised its return on investment as the plant had never been functional although it was built at a cost of P11 billion.

He wondered why the Chinese contractors were taking long to fix the 600MW Power plant.

However, the Minister of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security, Mr Lefoko Moagi said the plant had been placed under remedy under the costs of the contractors and was expected to be on board in June 2023.

The Minister further said Morupule A was fully functional and produced 140MW.  Ends