01 Dec 2024

Although overwhelmed with needs, constituents of the Okavango East will appreciate more if government could tarmac the 198km road from Ghani East to Gudigwa.

This was stated by the area Member of Parliament, Mr Gabatsholwe Disho when contributing to the SONA debate in Parliament on Thursday.

Mr Disho said that it had taken four legislators since 1984 to advocate for the tarring of the road, but to no avail.

“I am the fifth legislator, and of all the challenges in my area that have brought me to Parliament, this particular road makes half of them,” he said,  adding that tarring of the road would make the lives of his constituents much better.

Mr Disho complained about what he said was high poverty levels in his constituency, and said that it was also neglected education and health wise.

“We have two junior schools in the area and both are in dire need of maintenance, which might be contributing to poor academic performance as they never go beyond a 40 per cent pass rate,” he said.

Mr Disho said because of poor water supply in the constituency, pupils were sometimes forced to skip school, which affected their academic performance.

He said it was a sad reality that villages in his constituency lacked water despite being in the periphery of the Okavango River, which pumped an annual 11 billion cubic litres of water.

The MP pleaded with government to come up with plans of purifying the river water to potable standards as people had resorted to drinking from the ponds.

For his part, Mogoditshane East Member of Parliament, Mr Letlhogonolo Barongwang applauded civil servants for ensuring the smooth running of the past elections.

“We should also take this moment to appreciate the leadership of President Advocate Duma Boko because from 2014 up to now, he managed to produce 70 Members of Parliament, which shows visionary leadership,” he said.

Equally commendable Mr Barongwang said, was a decision by President Boko to select Cabinet from across three political parties.

He said his SONA was also consistent with all six pillars in the ruling party manifesto.

“This SONA therefore, inspires hope and all it needs is good and trustworthy leadership, which I am confident that we have in the Umbrella for Democratic Change,” he said.

Mr Barongwang also said that for the ruling party to succeed it needed strong and independent oversight institution.

He however, expressed confidence in opposition parties in Parliament to effectively play that role.

Mr Barongwang positioned Mogoditshane as having a competitive advantage for economic exploitation due to its proximity to the city, its high population, availability of human resource as well as being a link to major villages.

“All we need is resources, and it is a pity that the society was already drifting into hopelessness because of high unemployment in the village. This also contributed significantly to societal ills,” he said and raised concern about shortage of water at Ledumadumane East which he said was ironic because it was abundant in adjacent residential areas in Gaborone such as Block 8 and 10. BOPA