19 Feb 2014

MP for South East South has called for the enactment of citizen empowerment law as opposed to Citizen Empowerment Policy.

Debating the 2014/2015 budget proposals on February 18, Mr Odirile Motlhale said it was important to have a citizen empowerment law in order to empower citizens to participate in the economy of the country, arguing that the citizen empowerment policy in place was not beneficial to citizens.

He said in other countries, foreign companies were forced to get into partnership with citizens so that citizens could have a stake in the companies. He said Botswana should emulate other countries in the immigration policy.

Mr Motlhale noted that  Batswana lacked certain skills that were possessed by expatriates and that the country should review its immigration policy so that people who possessed such skills would not wait for a long period to be issued with permanent residence permits.

On prioritisation of projects, Mr Motlhale said he was concerned with the way projects were prioritised, citing the construction of a bridge at the Platjan Border Post. He said Botswana was supposed to construct the bridge at Platjan whilst the South African government would construct a bridge at the Ramotswa Border Post.

He appealed to the Minister of Transport and Communications, Mr Nonofho Molefhi to carry out the project as promised because of its potential economic benefit. He suggested that Botswana should emulate Germany, which had a courier company known as DHL which operates in most countries.

The MP for Tonota North, Mr Fidelis Molao supported the budget, saying that it covered every sector of the economy. He said the country had adopted a citizen economic empowerment policy which was not addressed in the budget.

“The budget does not come out clearly on how we are going to drive this policy,” he said. He also applauded the finance minister for giving a lion’s share of the budget to education, adding that it shows the government’s determination to educate Batswana.

However, he said the government should create more jobs to absorb graduates from tertiary institutions. Regarding infrastructure development, he said there was a need to fast track the backlog eradication initiative so that it addresses shortage of classrooms in schools.

In addition, he said the bulk of funds allocated to the Ministry of Defence, Justice and Security would be used to address challenges faced by the Botswana Police Service. For his part, the MP for Borolong, Mr Kitso Mokaila said the budget was good because it looked at the current priorities to ensure that the economy continues to grow.

He said power and water were central to the growth of the economy, adding that as such the government had come up with a national water master plan to improve water supply in the country.

He said the plan emphasised the need for infrastructure development to carry water from the north to the south. He said the Lobatse water master plan, which depended on Gaborone, also needed funds to be implemented.

The Borolong MP said his constituency had no water, but that the government was building infrastructure to get water to affected areas.
Mr Mokaila, who is also the Minister of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources, said water supply needs infrastructure development which was provided for in the budget. ends