14 Nov 2021

Bakgatla cultural practices of bogwera and bojale, rivers such as Notwane and Madikwe as well as hills such as the ones in Oodi, can assist Mochudi East constituents to tap into the tourism industry, says Member of Parliament, Mr Mabuse Pule.

Contributing to the ongoing debate on the State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA) Thursday, Mr Pule appealed to the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism, to assist the constituency to explore its tourism potential.

He said the constituency was endowed with natural resources that, if utilised appropriately, could help residents tap into the tourism sphere.

Mr Pule argued that bogwera and bojale could be packaged and used for tourism purposes, thereby generating revenue for local communities.

The Mochudi East MP also called on government to consider capacitating village development committees (VDCs) by equipping their members with skills necessary to enable them to carry out their duties well.

He said given the key role that village development committees  performed in spearheading and facilitating developments in their respective jurisdictions, it was imperative that members be put through short courses in areas such as bookkeeping and project management.

He said basic skills in those fields would ensure that they discharged their mandate from a more informed perspective.

On the Ipelegeng programme, the Member of Parliament conceded that wages under the initiative were indeed low.

He, however, implored beneficiaries to note that low as the wages were, they could still be used as a stepping stone to start better and more sustainable ways of earning a living.

He said beneficiaries could, for instance, use their Ipelegeng wages to start street vendor businesses and other similar ventures, and that those could ultimately help them lessen the grip of poverty.

On health, Mr Pule said while the promised 240-bed hospital due to be built in Rasesa had been stalled by financial constraints, government should, in the meantime, deploy more medical personnel, especially doctors to health facilities in the constituency.

He said since the Deborah Retief Memorial Hospital in Mochudi had long been overwhelmed and was to be decongested through the construction of a new hospital in Rasesa, availing more doctors in the area would in the interim would make health services more accessible while awaiting a long-term solution.

On other issues, the Member of Parliament called for a better road network in the constituency.

For his part, Member of Parliament  Caterpillar Hikuama of Ngami said the State-of-the-Nation Address was devoid of substance as it did not address pertinent issues that affected Batswana, especially those in his constituency.

Mr Hikuama said the Ngami constituency was plagued by bad and impassable roads, something that he said curtailed ease of movement within the area.

He also decried the bad state of fences along the country’s borderline, noting that in the Ngami area, the poorly-maintained fence continued to put the area at risk of the spread of livestock diseases from neighbouring Namibia.

He noted that the area had, in the past, grappled with the outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), which had found its way into the country through porous border fences.

Regarding the eminent constitutional review process, Member of Parliament Hikuama said while the exercise was without doubt overdue, the nation needed to approach it with the objective of crafting a tribally-neutral constitution.

Lerala/Maunatlala Member of Parliament, Mr Sethabelo Modukanele prefaced his contribution to the debate by commending government for efforts being channelled towards the revitalisation of the economy of the Selebi Phikwe Economic Diversification Unit (SPEDU) region.

Mr Modukanele said the 2016 closure of the BCL mine had dealt a blow to the economy of Selebi Phikwe Economic Diversification Unit.

However, he said the recent announcement of the re-opening of the mine and the other efforts that had been ongoing to revive the economy of the area brought hope of a better future to residents. ENDS