20 Jul 2021

Maun West MP, Mr Dumelang Saleshando has called on the political leadership across the aisle to make concerted efforts towards curbing the surging COVID-19 numbers in the country.

Delivering a statement in Parliament recently, Mr Saleshando, who is also Leader of Opposition, said key to fighting and winning against COVID-19 pandemic in the country was a cohesive political leadership besides mutual support.

He therefore impressed upon all political leaders to commit to political tolerance, solidarity and national unity.

He lamented the psychological and economic impact resulting from COVID-19, saying amid such a fierce struggle national unity was paramount.

Mr Saleshando characterised COVID-19 as a national emergency which did not respect political boundaries and thus implored President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi to work together with all stakeholders particularly opposition parties to map a way forward.

He appealed to President Masisi to reach out and consult extensively to come up with a workable solution to the surging COVID-19 cases and fatalities.

Mr Saleshando underscored the need to reassure the nation that politicians from across the political divide, trade unions, business community, community-based organisations as well as the clergy were holding hands to save the nation.

However, he said it was disappointing that government had sidelined opposition leaders despite the latter’s relentless efforts to offer guidance on how best to arrest the situation.

Mr Saleshando however§     applauded government for closing schools but regretted that the decision came rather too late and after teachers’ unions threatened litigation for the loss of over 60 teachers who succumbed to COVID-19 related complications.

“We support the decision to close schools as there was clear evidence that our schools had become super spreaders and the advent of winter also exacerbated the spread of the virus in schools,” he said.

Mr Saleshando said government should now act with haste and vaccinate all teachers as well as non-teaching staff in schools irrespective of age before schools reopen, further cautioning that failure to do so was recipe for disaster.

“We need to assure the teachers that they will be vaccinated before schools reopen and other frontliners like the police and immigration workers at points of entry also need to be vaccinated within the shortest possible time,” he noted.

He said vaccine roll-out should be top priority with President Masisi personally spearheading procurement of vaccines.

“For our population size and the cordial relations, we have with countries that manufacture vaccines, we can definitely do better. Botswana needs to vaccinate all those that need to be vaccinated before the end of 2021,” he said.

Mr Saleshando stated that government should also play a pivotal role in efforts towards vaccine manufacturing given that entities such as the Botswana Vaccine Institute (BVI) were proof that Botswana had potential to produce drugs.

He called for termination of the State of Public Emergency arguing that there was no direct correlation between its efficacies and COVID-19 numbers.

In addition, Mr Saleshando argued that the State of Public Emergency was working against the inflow of tourists into the country given that some countries were already discouraging their citizens to travel to Botswana on account of the current atmosphere. ENDS