20 Nov 2022

Gaborone North’s legislator has urged fellow MPs to lead the way into realising the ideals of Vision 2036 and the Reset Agenda.

Making his contribution to the SONA debate Thursday, Mr Mpho Balopi said the two instruments were strategies that demanded concerted efforts from legislators.

He said it was incumbent upon MPs to adopt new approaches to doing things differently as espoused by President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi’s transformational roadmap.

He challenged the political leadership to change status quo in order to realise the aspirations of many Batswana.

Mr Balopi said government’s promise to ensure mindset change had to be embraced.

He said the nation was known as a beacon of peace, but there had been a disturbing trend of a ‘pull him down syndrome’.

He said the negativity of not supporting each other as Batswana was a worrying social ill that had resulted in business stunted growth.

He said Batswana must support each other and own the economy, which was a true definition of citizen economic empowerment.

Mr Balopi expressed belief in a private sector-led economy and urged Batswana to take up business enterprises and not solely rely on government for socio-economic development.

He said the Citizen Economic Empowerment Agency should not be considered a start-up agency, but a trajectory to any business entity for it to realise its whole purpose of entrepreneurship.

He said the informal sector had to be organised into clusters in a bid to formalise it, which would lead to a robust economy driven by the middle class.

He said the move needed robust human capital to succeed.

For his part, Francistown West MP, Mr Ignatius Moswaane appealed to legislators to join hands and support each other for the benefit of Batswana.

He decried the poor state of the public health system, especially the debilitating effects of drug shortages.

He said shortage of drugs across the country required accountability as it was now a coyrse for concern.

Mr Moswaane pleaded with government to look into the issuance of drugs by private pharmacies, especially the agreement between Associated Fund Administrators and government.

He said Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital in Francistown was hard hit by the current pharmaceutical supply shortage.

He also decried high unemployment rates, especially in high-density areas such as Francistown as job opportunities were dwindling into oblivion.

He said poverty levels among youth and women were worrying and he appealed for the resuscitation of the gender economic empowerment scheme, which had long gone to review.

He said the root cause of social ills against women and children emanated from lack of economic empowerment. ENDS