09 Feb 2014

The 2014/15 budget speech has attracted mixed reactions from Members of Parliament.

Responding to the budget in Parliament on Wednesday, February 5, the Tonota South MP, Mr Pono Moatlhodi said the Ministry of Health was one of the top four ministries allocated the biggest share of the budget yet there was no provision for a new hospital in Tonota.

He said a district hospital should be provided for Francistown because Nyangabgwe was a referral hospital. He said it was disturbing to hear of cases of maternal deaths and infant mortality and challenges such as lack of drugs and proper health facilities yet this country was committed to attaining Millennium Development Goals.

On transport, Mr Moatlhodi who is also MP for Tonota South said the Minister of Transport and Communications must consider bringing back the passenger train into service because bus fares were high. He said the passenger train was not meant to make profit but to provide service, adding that buses were also prone to accidents.

The Tonota legislator said this country boasted of excellent borrowing power hence the need for the minister responsible for transport to ask for a loan from the World Bank to finance this passenger train.

Regarding education, he said schools were still faced with challenges such as shortage of classrooms and teachers accommodation. More classrooms should be constructed to accommodate all students because in Tonota some classes were taught outside due to shortage of classrooms, he said.

He also raised a concern over poor examination results saying that something needed to be done to address this problem. “We cannot have a nation that produces failures,” he said.

Mr Moatlhodi commended the Bank of Botswana and judicial system for maintaining inflation and excellent judicial service respectively. He however raised a concern over localisation of some posts in the judicial system.

MP Moatlhodi said because the increasing stock theft cases there was need to have magistrates in rural areas to preside over such cases.

For his part, MP for Tati East, Mr Samson Guma commended the Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Mr Kenneth Matambo for the budget speech.

He said the country faced a serious problem of unemployment which posed a challenge to both the ruling and opposition parties, hence the need to come up with mega projects that would grow the economy as well as create employment.

Agriculture, he said was a key area that needed to be developed in order for this country to be self-sufficient in food, adding that the establishment of sugar plantations would help reduce unemployment by eight per cent.

On the contrary, he said agricultural sector contributed three per cent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product yet the government continued to invest a lot of money into it despite that there was no growth.

The cattle industry, particularly Botswana Meat Commission drained the economy and operated like a cartel where very few people benefited, he said.

MP for Maun West, Mr Tawana Moremi called for improvement in productivity, citing the delay in the construction of Morupule B power station.

He said the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources was allocated a lot of funds to undertake dams construction projects yet the country was still faced with inadequate water supply.

MP for Gaborone West South, Mr Botsalo Ntuane also commended Mr Matambo for the budget speech saying that it was a positive budget and the best ever since he came into Parliament.

He said with this budget the lives of average Batswana are set to change for the better, adding that the tax threshold had been increased from 500 000 to P1m.

Mr Ntuane said through this budget, this country had created the biggest middle class through education and economic empowerment initiatives.

He said the government had a duty to ensure that vulnerable people were taken care of, adding that this country was getting less poor people which showed that many people were graduating from poverty.

MP Ntuane said there was no point for the opposition to ridicule the policies in place, rather should come up with innovative ideas if they feel that the policies were not working for Batswana. ENDS