21 Nov 2021

The production of different goods from coal can  help the country avert the growing unemployment, says Palapye Member of Parliament (MP), Mr Onneetse Ramogapi.

He said it was disappointing that despite Botswana having been mining coal for decades, the country was yet to explore other ways through which it could benefit from the mineral.

Mr Ramogapi, who was contributing on the debate on the State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA) last Thursday, said producing different goods from coal such as gas, fuel, paint thinners, cement and food preservatives could have created thousands of jobs for locals, thereby lessening the pace at which unemployment was growing.

On another issue, the MP denounced government for what he termed neglect of private sector employees.

Mr Ramogapi said while the opposition was advocating for a living wage of P3 000, it was sad that government did not want to move away from the minimum wage, which he said remained too low to cushion employees from the hardships of life.

He urged government to consider improving the plight of private sector employees.

Zeroing in on issues pertaining to his constituency, MP Ramogapi appealed for the adequate resourcing of police in Palapye. He said while the police in the village were diligent in discharging their duties, the shortage of resources, especially vehicles, was hampering them from properly executing their duties.

On health, the MP said government had in 2019 promised that a new hospital would be built in Palapye, but that to date nothing had been done.

He said Palapye Primary Hospital was overwhelmed and that the new hospital would have eased congestion at the facility and in turn made access to health services easier.

Mr Ramogapi also appealed for a better road network in Palapye.

He said Palapye internal roads were so bad that fire engines struggled to respond to emergency calls due to traffic congestion as well as the bad state of the roads.

Despite the challenge of bad roads, Mr Ramogapi thanked government for the ongoing maintenance of the Serowe-Palapye road, a project that he said would ease movement between the two villages.

Also contributing to the SONA debate, Takatokwane MP, Mr Tshoganetso Leuwe observed that the monopoly held by Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board (BAMB) was detrimental to the growth of the arable farming sub-sector.

Mr Leuwe implored government to do away with BAMB’s monopoly, indicating that doing so would trigger competition and consequently bring about an improvement in the prices of crops.

He said with better prices being offered, arable farming would become more lucrative and many people would as a result be drawn into it.

On a different note, the MP observed that the informal sector needed to be supported so as to enable it to fully unleash its potential.

He said rendering support to the sector would be a way of acknowledging how much it was doing in sustaining the economy of families.

He said the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry should devise strategies of helping those in the informal sector to grow and better the means through which they earned a living.

On roads, MP Leuwe noted that roads in his constituency were in a bad state and therefore needed to be prioritised.

He cited the Letlhakeng-Kaudwane road, which he said government should consider tarring.

He said the construction of the road would, in addition to making movement smoother, offer residents as well as other Batswana some employment opportunities for the duration of the implementation of the project.

Mr Leuwe also complained about the state of clinics and the manner in which they were giving services to the public.

He said since they got transferred to the central government, clinics had become less effective in serving the public.

The sad state of affairs, he said, could be corrected by transferring them back to local authorities, saying councils had already proven their mettle in ensuring that clinics functioned effectively. BOPA