12 Jul 2022

Newly introduced Public Procurement Act is said  to be discriminating against government officers, a Kopong resident has said.

Making remarks at the just ended constituency consultative meetings addressed by MP Nnaniki Makwinja, Mr Dennis Mpela cautioned against discriminatory nature of the public procurement act against government officers.

  He explained that the act barred government officers’ relatives from tendering within their place of work.

“Waabo o bereka mo lefelong leo ka gore o nnile le lesego la go berekela foo ka nako eo,” he said, emphasising that one becomes an employee of a particular department because they were fortunate to find employment there.

On the recent ban of some vegetable imports, Mr Mpela said a partial and not total ban on the said vegetables could have been put into effect based on local capacity to produce. Instead, he said government should adopt research and development as a strategy to grow horticultural sector. 

He further called for thorough research before some of the laws could be put into use.

He therefore called for punitive measures against non-delivery of services by suppliers as that lead to delayed delivery of government programmes.

Mr Patrick Gabanamotse also a resident, expressed concerned about skyrocketing prices of food which hit hard on low income families and therefore appealed to government to exampt tax on essential food supplies.

Meanwhile Ms Mokgabo Disheitane expressed displeasure for teachers’ involvement in marking final examinations saying that affected progress and contributed to dismal performance of students. She therefore called for total removal of teachers from the marking exercise. “A matichara ba ntshiwe mo piece job ya go marka.” she said. Other residents applauded government for the new laws particularly the citizen inclusion law, public procurement and land acts. They said beautiful as they sound, the only stumbling block was implementation.

Responding to comments Ms Makwinja acknowledged that government always crafted programmes aimed at improving lives, but noted that those who were supposed to implement these programmes were ‘simply lazy to do that.’

“Go neela tshwene marapo ke bolwetsi mo lefatsheng le ke sone se mananeo ka bontsi a paletsweng ke go bereka,” she said adding “we cannot continue this way.” As a consequence she said discipline measures must.be taken against those failing to implement.

 She challenged all to always look at things differently and adopt the reset agenda to move the country forward. Ends