07 Jun 2021

The Vice President, Mr Slumber Tsogwane says teachers also needed to be high on the COVID-19 vaccine priority list looking at the fact that they were at a high risk of exposure. 

Speaking at Sekoma village on Thursday, where he had gone to consult the leadership on development projects and government programmes in the village, Mr Tsogwane said teachers mingled with learners from different households, who could infect them.

He said as vaccines kept coming, government would prioritise who should get vaccinated next, until the whole population was covered. 

Mr Tsogwane said it was only when the whole population was vaccinated that government could start thinking of relaxing some of the protocols in place to fight the pandemic. He said that in the meantime, Batswana needed to be cautious, especially of the new variants that have proved more deadly. He said when the first State of Emergency was declared, government did not plan to keep extending it, but that circumstances raised the need as numbers kept rising moreso that self-discipline was wanting.  

“So it is a tough job of balancing between tightening the protocols and heeding people’s wishes of relaxing them,” he stressed. 

Mr Tsogwane also made an assurance that despite the COVID-19 challenge, government was still committed to fulfilling the promises made to the electorates. 

Meanwhile, the vice president informed the gathering that a committee tasked with reviewing the Constitution was in place and ready to start work, saying the exercise was vital, especially that it rarely happened. He therefore urged Batswana to treat it seriously. 

“The exercise comes rarely and is only done on the feedback of a need by Batswana through consultation. A Constitution is sacred and needs to be respected to prevent conflicts, including respecting the leadership put in place by the Constitution such as the Head of State,” he said. 

Mr Tsogwane therefore advised people to respect the Constitution before partaking in its review. 

He said Botho was one of the principles that guided Batswana as a nation and that although the Constitution did not spell out how to address and treat a Head of State, such principles should guide the nation. ends