19 Jul 2022

Gaborone Central Member of Parliament, Mr Tumisang Mangwegape-Healy on Friday tabled an urgent motion seeking Parliament to dissolve and reconstitute parliamentary committees.
The motion read; ‘that this Honourable House resolves as a matter of urgency to suspend Standing Order 98.1 and proceed to dissolve all the Committees of Parliament and direct the Committee of Selection to expeditiously constitute the new parliamentary committees within three days of this resolution being passed by Parliament, reflecting the composition of parties in Parliament as near as possible’.
Mr Mangwegape-Healy argued that the current parliamentary committees were not reflective of the balance of parties in Parliament.
He said that status quo was against Standing Order 100, which prescribed the composition of select committees.
“The standing order reads that every select committee shall be so constituted as to ensure as far as possible that the balance of parties in the assembly is reflected in the committee.
Currently, that is not the case,” said the MP.
Mr Mangwegape-Healy pointed out that there had been movements within Parliament since the 2019 general elections, which resulted in significant changes to compositions of parliamentary committees.
“There have been defections, new cabinet appointments and members who moved to the backbench.
So, committees are not as they were composed in the aftermath of the elections.
This is the anomaly that has to be corrected,” said the MP.
He noted that some MPs were dropped from cabinet and said they were slotted into committees not suitable to their specialties.

He added the knowledge and expertise of such members was being misused, and called for the correction of that ‘anomaly’ so that Parliament could adequately serve the nation.

He also suggested that Parliament could benchmark from local authorities and renew its committees halfway through its five-year term.
Mochudi West MP, Mr Mmusi Kgafela supportted the motion.

He said the standing orders were clear that parliamentary committees should reflect the balance of parties in Parliament.

Mr Kgafela, who is also the Minister of Trade, said such was the general practice in parliaments around the world.

“It is not okay for the representation of those committees not to be reflective of the balance of parties in Parliament as far as possible.

It’s inescapable that we must in these committees represent the balance of parties as they stand in the National Assembly,” said the MP.

Gaborone South MP, Mr Dumezweni Mthimkhulu also supported the motion.

Mr Mthimkhulu, who is also Assistant Minister for State President, said it was against Standing Order 100 that most of the parliamentary committees were chaired by opposition members.

Ngami MP, Mr Caterpillar Hikuama opposed the motion, arguing that parliamentary committees should be left to play their oversight role of bringing checks and balances to cabinet.

He said it was not true that there was no balance of parties in parliamentary committees.

He also said most of the ruling party members were elected into cabinet, leaving only 15 Botswana Democratic Party members eligible for appointment to the select committees.

Okavango MP, Mr Kenny Kapinga also opposed the motion, urging cabinet ministers to desist from interfering in the operations of parliamentary oversight committees.

He argued that the motion sought to dilute the independence of Parliament.

Debate on the motion continues this week. BOPA