20 Nov 2024

Main opposition in Parliament, Botswana Congress Party (BCP) has indicated that although President Duma Boko’s first State Of the Nation Address (SONA) was not more pronounced on the ruling party’s manifesto pledges, they will give them benefit of them doubt.

BCP’s spokesperson, Mr Boniface Mabeo told media post SONA delivery on Tuesday that the SONA did not commit much to anything nor did it have any timelines of the deliverables set by the ruling party

“This resembles the practices of the past immediate ruling party which often gave its plans without much commitment. The promises that the UDC made to the electorate during the campaign did not come out clear and pronounced,” said Mr Mabeo, who is also the Member of Parliament for GaMalete.

However, he said since it was the first SONA by the UDC, for now they would allow the new government to lay out their plans and hoped for better the next time.

Mr Mabeo, however, said real work would start when Members of Parliament start to debate the SONA as they would get a chance to enquire and interrogate more to get details and clarity on issues they felt were missing.

He said some of the prominent issues they expected President Boko to dwell on was constitutional review and electoral reforms.

“We did not see much on those issues although it was very important for President Boko to talk about them.

As the former opposition party, the UDC has been as worried as much as the BCP was on electoral reforms.However, these are still baby steps for the new President and we will give them time,” he said.

Mr Mabeo also said the BCP was working on its shadow cabinet, to be announce soon. He said the shadow cabinet was important as it would help in providing checks to each government ministry.

Leader of the minority in parliament, Mr Karabo Gare said they expected the SONA to touch more on manifesto promises by the ruling party.

He also said a lot of things mentioned were similar to what Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) had promised to Batswana in the past.

“We expected President Boko to expand on issues that caused Batswana to vote for the UDC, but I cannot say that his message lacked much on electoral campaign promises that the UDC made, but only that the promises needed to be more pronounced,” he said.

He also said the fact that President Boko touched on a few challenges might lead to suspicions that some of the electoral promises may not be viable. Ends