16 Feb 2014

The Member of Parliament for Francistown West, Dr Habaudi Hubona has called on government to alleviate poverty amongst women saying the number of female headed homes has increased.

Debating the 2014/15 budget proposals, Dr Hubona said unless the Minister of Finance and Development Planning comes up with an affirmative action to assist women, Botswana would continue to be a poor and an unhappy nation. She said it had been proven that education and employment of women was an economic additive.

MP Hubona said she was concerned that the budget was silent on women yet it should be addressing Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 3 which talked about promotion of gender equality and women empowerment.

She said her constituency, which was one of the oldest locations in the country, was characterised by high population density and low income with muddy structures and poverty.

She said given the wealth of the country, such a scenario should not be in existence. MP Hubona said there were no traces of diamonds or other minerals in Francistown West as the constituency remained under developed adding that there were pit latrines in the area resulting with outbreak of disease and poor quality of life.

Botswana, she said, owned one of the most expensive patch of land and this should be reflected in its health and education. Francistown West, she said, had been at the receiving end of poor infrastructural development and called for funding to correct these such as the stadium that is yet to be completed and handed over to the government.

The MP said the western bypass, which had long been planned, was not yet constructed and this had resulted with heavy mining machinery and vehicles passing through Maipaafela location damaging the houses in the process.

She said the reason Botswana’s wealth had not shown results was due to poor project management, which she said emanated from lack of capacity building and government’s failure to retain brilliant minds as people leave the public service for greener pastures.

Another factor she said was nepotism. Dr Hubona noted that government should set dynamic targets and reflect on progress saying this would help fight corruption. She also called for the opening of Oriental Plaza saying it would result with employment for her constituents.

Contributing to the debate, the MP for Maun East, Mr Frank Ramsden said Batswana found it difficult to venture into tourism saying foreigners dominate the industry. He said for a local to be a tour operator he or she is faced with many hurdles hence only foreigners were able to do business and this has resulted in racial discrimination.

MP Ramsden said the government should find ways in which farmers in FMD zones would be able to sell their leather to the envisaged Leather Park billed for Lobatse saying otherwise the project is bound to fail as it cannot be sustained by Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) alone.

He said the two years given to people to develop their plots was small saying they should be provided with amenities such as water, electricity and roads in order for them to construct houses. Ends