LOO decries absence of opposition MPs in committees
The Leader of Opposition, Dithapelo Keorapetse has complained about the injustices that they experienced at the hands of the ruling party in the last session of parliament.
He explained that the ruling party deliberately side-lined the National Development Plan 12 (NDP 12) and are moving forward with a more convenient plan that is tailor-made to seek favour for votes from the public.
Keorapetse said that 20 out of the 24 committees of the Botswana Parliament are run by the ruling party.
He said that as the opposition Members of Parliament they did not want the committees to be controlled by the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) as they knew that interests of Batswana would not be heeded.
That is why they refused to be part of the current arrangement where members of the ruling party had to take majority seats in all committees.
“A lot of committees do not meet the required quorum as they booted us out,” Keorapetse said, adding that during the ‘vile’ Khama era this was never the case.
Keorapetse said in the inter parliamentary bodies, members of the BDP serve in multiple bodies at the same time. For example, MP Talita Monnakgotla who is a cabinet member is in the SADC Parliamentary Forum, whilst there are opposition MPs who are not in any committees, he said.
Keorapetse added that people like Specially-elected MP Unity Dow are side-lined just because she is in the backbench of parliament.
He revealed that the Parliament staff is unhappy about their allowances, as they are not paid their overtime allowances. In instances where they are paid anything, the monies are paid late.
According to LOO, live recording of parliament is done by soldiers because the Speaker of Parliament and the office of the Clerk do not agree with the workers on conditions of work.
He continued that the ruling party MPs had intended to ensure that government business should be the only one that is conducted whilst private member business is ignored.
“It was very hard for MP Mephato Reatile’s adoption bill, my bill of affiliation proceedings, the electoral act bill by MP Dumelang Saleshando to be tabled before parliament,” Keorapetse said.
Keorapetse said that opposition Members of Parliament are doing all that they can do at parliament but the ruling party often rejects their ideas because they have resolved at the BDP caucus level to reject everything from the opposition table.
He further complained that Cabinet Members of Parliament do not answer questions tabled to them, if they do answer questions, they take forever to do so.
He noted that in one instance a cabinet member took 27 minutes to answer a question, a classical act of time wasting, according to him.
Leader of the BPF Mephato Reatile said that under the tenure of Peggy Serame as Minister of Finance, Botswana is going deeper and deeper into debt. However, the monies are not being utilised to benefit the people of Botswana, he said.
He added that projects have stalled across the country and Cabinet members will blame civil servants at the end of the financial year, whilst they are not pushing to ensure that the money that has been loaned is being used. The two legislators were addressing a joint press conference of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) and Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) recently.