19 Feb 2023

Shortage of condoms in the greater Palapye region may impede government’s programmes aimed at curbing the spread of HIV/AIDS.

The area Member of Parliament, Mr Onneetse Ramogapi said this in his contribution to the ongoing debate on the proposed 2023/2024 budget recently.

“Unavailability of condoms in public dispensaries and health facilities in Palapye will defeat government’s efforts to curb the spread of HIV,” Mr Ramogapi said.

The legislator said like other parts of the country, Palapye also felt the impact of shortage of medicines in government health facilities. 

As such, he urged government to strive to replenish the much depleted public hospital pharmacies.

He also pleaded with government to review means to resuscitate the ill-fated Palapye glass project, which he said if properly monitored, could have direct impact on economic activity as a result of the injection of fiscal expenditure and contribute immensely to the country’s economic growth.

“Government should prioritise spending on revitalising the glass project on the basis of anticipated socio-economic returns due to its many possible strings of value chain beneficiation as well as employment creation,” he said.

Also contributing to the debate, MP for Mmathete/Molapowabojang, Dr Edwin Dikoloti, commended government for devoting more resources toward infrastructure development.

Dr Dikoloti, as such, expressed that some of the intended infrastructure development projects aimed at addressing water supply would address water woes in his constituency through implementation of the Good Hope water master plan.

“The infrastructure development projects remain a sector with a lot of potential to create jobs and skills transfer as well as alternative avenues of growth for the economy, using both highly skilled labour and the unskilled,” he said.

Dr Dikoloti, who is also Minister of Health, however appealed for tarring of the road that linked Jwaneng and Maokane, saying it had the potential to transform the lives of the residents.

For his part, Member of Parliament for Thamaga/Kumakwane, Mr Palelo Motaosane argued that benefits of Botswana’s budgeting system as well as National Development Plans had not trickled down to the masses, particularly in his constituency.

“It is worrisome that no project under NDP 11 was carried out in Thamaga/Kumakwane constituency, a trend which could be classified as uneven development,” Mr Motaosane said, citing the Thamaga-Molepolole road project which had since stalled.

He also argued that regional disparities in the development of the country may slow the growth of the entire national economy, adding it was therefore important for government to establish policy requirements that would narrow the urban rural socio-economic disparities.

He was however hopeful that the Thamaga stormwater drainage would be considered under the 2023-2025 Transitional National Development Plan (TNDP). Ends