01 Nov 2023

Bobonong’s MP, Mr Taolo Lucas,  preempts the November meeting of Parliament to be the busiest because it will be seized with debating many issues, among them the review of the constitution.

Because it would be the last State of the Nation Address before the general elections, there promises to be a lot of activity with MPs deliberating on various issues of national interest with aplomb, a move intended to impress the electorate who sent them to Parliament in 2019.

Speaking during kgotla meetings in his constituency, Mr Lucas said that he expected the debate to be heated and therefore, pleaded with his electorate to be accommodative of the language and tempers that may flare.

Expected to be debated is the review of the Constitution with heightened interests on direct election of the president, he said.

“We will debate constitutional matters as you proposed during the commission on the review of the Constitution visited your areas,” he said. “I gathered and will submit several points that I will use to debate on the floor of Parliament.”

Among other things, Mr Lucas said that Parliament would also debate review of the Revised Wildlife Compensation Guidelines of 2013 under Conservation and National Parks Act of 1992.

Mr Lucas said that MPs across political divide agreed that damages by some animals needed to be compensated for. Also, compensation needed to be revised since it was deemed meager, he said.

“Just imagine that one is compensated with P70 for a donkey killed by wild animals…a donkey here in Bobirwa is a source of draught power and should be compensated for accordingly,” said Mr Lucas.

Although he informed his electorate of an unlikelihood of all problem animals making it into the list of animals whose damages are compensated for, Mr Lucas was upbeat the list will be stretched. The damages, he said, would extend even to crops.

On other matters, MP Lucas said that he had submitted a motion to the speaker of the National Assembly regarding allocation of land in Botswana.

He said that the motion would seek to find how much of land was unused, why some people possessed chunks of land while others were reduced to poverty.

“I hope this motion makes it to the floor of Parliament this session or February,” he said. ENDS