10 Nov 2013

Gaborone Central MP, Mr Dumelang Saleshando has accused government of failing to deliver on the previous promises that itmade to Parliament.  

Responding to President Khama’s State-of-the-Nation Address in Parliament recently Mr Saleshando said ‘as with the address of 2012, it was clear that the President Lt Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama was trying to paint a positive picture, but ignored some of the glaring challenges that this nation faces.’

“A number of people who were interviewed through private radio stations, as well as private newspapers talked of the difficulty of relating what the President was saying with their every day life, because it was sugar coated,” said Mr Saleshando, who is also Botswana Congress Party (BCP) leader .

Mr Saleshando said he had hoped that since this was the last State-of-the-Nation Address before the general elections, the President would take time to reflect on previous promises that he had made to the House.  “If you take paragraph 49 of his address, the President mentions the nationwide crop failure and poor grazing due to inadequate rainfall that has set the farmers back. He has completely forgotten that he mentioned this problem a few years ago and proposed a solution,” he said.

The solution that President Khama proposed, Mr Saleshando said, was that government was going to introduce an agricultural insurance scheme that would be in operation by the year 2009. He said it was now 2013, and President Khama “is still telling us about the same problem and has completely forgotten about the pledge he made.” 

In addition, Mr Saleshando said in paragraph 77 and 78 of his address, President Khama talked of the good performance in combating corruption and shut his eyes to the reality that not long ago, Parliament was dealing with the Botswana Development Corporation, which exposed corruption at the highest level of decision making. 

“And only last week we were informed that the plant is now being abandoned and we have no hope of recovering the fund that we accrued to that plant. The employee who has sourced to expose the corruption at BDC was dismissed - no recognition, no compensation and even the President doesn’t care about the people who expose corruption,” he added.

Furthermore, Mr Saleshando said a few years ago, President Khama also promised to introduce a Whistle Blower Protection Legislature and had not delivered on this. After the BDC experience, he said Batswana now know that in Botswana one exposes corruption at their own risk, ‘because the Botswana Democratic Party led government has no interest in protecting anyone who exposes corruption.’ 

BCP leader also said ‘we have been told of the declining levels of poverty - which is ironic, because whilst we claim that poverty is on the decline, we announce a bigger budget for looking after destitutes and social welfare and that is a clear contradiction.”

He said the civil service was unable to deliver, adding that whilst government talked of attaining greater efficiency in the public service, ordinary citizens on a daily basis were battling with a government machinery that was unable to deliver on its pledge. Ends