02 Mar 2022

President of the Botswana-France Parliamentary Friendship Group, Mr Philippe Michel-Kleisbauer has likened their visit to Botswana to the Kazungula Bridge. 

He said just as the project opened up ties and solidified relationships between Botswana and neighbouring countries, their visit would strengthen Botswana’s ties with France and open up opportunities for Batswana. 

He was speaking Tuesday during a courtesy call by the parliamentary friendship group on the Speaker of the National Assembly. 

Mr Michel-Kleisbauer emphasised that the relations between the two Parliaments were symbolic of the diplomatic ties that the two countries shared and therefore worth strengthening. 

He said France and Botswana Parliaments shared a lot of similarities, adding that like its Botswana counterpart, the French Parliament did not enjoy absolute independence. 

“We have the Parliament, Executive and Administration and therefore there is a need to separate powers and understand the value of Parliament,” he said. 

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Michel- Kleisbauer said France’s Parliament was conducted virtually, therefore encountered some challenges in transmission and analysing of some documents. 

He however said barring teething issues, parliamentary proceedings were held successfully. 

He said the pandemic had negatively impacted on the development agenda, as like other nations, France prioritised fighting the disease, in the process frustrating a number of major planned developments. 

Mr Michel-Kleisbauer said despite its negative consequences, the COVID-19 pandemic spurred progress, as it resulted in projects aimed at building capacity of the people, after shortcomings in government systems were identified. 

Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr Phandu Skelemani also shared Botswana’s success story in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, adding however that even though the country responded timely, it was handicapped by inability to produce vaccines. 

He said the situation however, provided an opportunity for the country to plan, as it now wanted to manufacture drugs. 

Mr Skelemani said while he was interested in how the French fought the pandemic, he was well aware that they were advanced in technology and therefore their response was prompt compared to that of developing nations. 

While appreciating that COVID-19 had resulted in the use of technology to communicate and hold Parliament sessions, 

Mr Skelemani said the virtual platform was not convenient for some committees, citing the oversight committee whose members were compelled to come together to examine financial records. 

He said Botswana Parliament was not yet independent, adding, “we cannot practically define the independence of government”. 

He said Parliament had diverse representation and that the youth were equally represented, as some legislators were young enough to be alive to the challenges of young people. 

These young legislators were gradually gaining knowledge on the affairs of the house as they interacted with older members, he said. 

He explained to the visiting delegation that said Ntlo Ya Dikgosi offered advice to Parliament on issues relating to culture and traditional values. 

Mr Skelemani said relations between Botswana and France were good, with the latter giving citizens an opportunity to learn French. 

He explained French was an official language for some countries in SADC like the Democratic Republic of Congo and many others in Africa. 

“The benevolence of your country gives us an opportunity to relate more with our French speaking partners,” he said. 

ENDS