28 Aug 2019

Ramotswa constituency has been described as an area facing challenges of shortage of land and water as well as high unemployment.

This was revealed during the ongoing Radio Botswana parliamentary debates in Ramotswa in August 27.

Prospective parliamentary candidates for the constituency are Mr Boniface Mabeo of Alliance for Progressives (AP), Mr Lefoko Moagi of Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), Ms Tseleng Botlhole of Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) and Mr Samuel Rantuana of Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC).

During the debate, Mr Mabeo said his party had set top three priority areas of a clean government, creating jobs and fast-tracking land allocation.

He said to develop the constituency there was need to harvest the abundant underground water in the area, as farmers could no longer rely on rainfall.

He said there would be a borehole scheme where farmers would form clusters and get assisted with a borehole to keep their production ongoing in the absence of rainfall.

Mr Mabeo said the country had a huge import bill of buying commodities which could be cultivated locally. He added that his party would ensure food security as well as creating jobs for Batswana.

He said he would revive the piggery sector and turn the constituency into a hub for piggery, adding that it would create employment. He noted that almost all pork products came from neighbouring countries.

Furthermore, Mr Mabeo promised to promote cultural tourism by taking advantage of existing and underutilised tourist attraction sites such as Lentswe la Baratani and Manyelanong among others.

The BDP prospective candidate, Mr Moagi said his agenda and that of his party was to transform the economy into a knowledge-based economy with an inclusive economy.

He said in developing the economy, there would be exports of goods as well as creation of sustainable jobs.

As for the constituency, he said Ramotswa would be turned into a hub for eco-tourism and horticulture.

Mr Moagi promised the electorate that his party had a target of taking the current unemployment rate to about five per cent if retained in power.

 This, he said, would be done by turning policies such as economic diversification and community based natural resource management into laws which would compel the government to implement.

Mr Moagi also promised to revitalise the Mogobane Irrigation Scheme through luring investors into the project as well as advocate for the commercialisation of the Ramotswa Border Gate.

He also promised to advocate for maintaining the aged water infrastructure in order to enable the constituency to have clean water, adding that the area lost water due to old infrastructure.

The BMD candidate, Ms Botlhole promised to reform the education sector and address issues such as pupil teacher ratio.

She said the current pupil teacher ratio had resulted in the decline of academic performance.

Ms Botlhole said the school environment needed to be reformed through improving infrastructure to be friendly to both teachers and leaners.

If elected, she promised to fight against shortage of drugs in public health facilities as well as initiate an audit of government stocks.

She also promised to ensure that the Mogobane Irrigation Scheme was functioning as well as advocating for the agriculture sector.

While the UDC candidate, Mr Rantuana said his party would fight corruption.

 Mr Rantuana said corruption had resulted in sluggish projects implementation while some tender awarding raised eyebrows.

He accused the ruling party for failing to allocate plots to the community under the pretext that there was shortage of land.

He promised that his party would avail land for the community, hence addressing the plight faced by Ramotswa constituency residents.

Mr Rantuana also promised to ensure that the Mogobane Irrigation Scheme was working to its full capacity, adding that currently dairy infrastructure needed to be refurbished.

 He said during his tenure, he advocated for developments in the constituency such as the Ngotwane Bridge as well as advocating for extending the operating hours of the Ramotswa Border Gate.

He urged voters to take him to Parliament because they would be voting for decent jobs. He said his party would  create 100 000 jobs in 12 months, pay P3 000 minimum wage and P2 500 as student allowance as well as free sanitary pads to school girls among others. Ends