01 Dec 2024

Legalising cultivation of industrial hemp will bring many economic opportunities, Member of Parliament for Nkange, Mr Motlhaleemang Moalosi has said.

 MP Moalosi expressed his support for the plan when responding to the State-of-the- Nation Address (SONA) on Wednesday.

The Botswana Congress Party MP said he wholeheartedly welcomed the idea by the Umbrella for Democratic Change led government to legalise cultivation of industrial hemp.

He said if cultivated, industrial hemp would result in many economic opportunities such as job creation.

Mr Moalosi further said he had undertaken extensive research on industrial hemp benefits and he would be ready to assist the government when requested to do so.

On other SONA issues, Mr Moalosi said President Advocate Duma Boko did not address issues of immigration and citizenship.

He said this was despite that he was quoted in some media outlets outlining his plans to document issue permits to illegal immigrants in the country.

Further, he expressed worry over cases of statelessness in Nkange Constituency, which involved mostly Batswana married to Zimbabweans or vice versa, as well as their descendants.

The affected, he said, were not issued with national identity cards, while in some cases their citizenship was withdrawn.

Mr Moalosi said statelessness disadvantaged the affected as they could not be employed or assisted to benefit from economic programmes.

However, he said his comfort was the pronouncement by President Boko that the government would be human rights based, hence he hoped the issues of statelessness would be addressed.

Mr Moalosi called on the government to consider building another hospital in Tutume and also treating construction of A3 road as a priority in consideration of the many lives that had been lost due to its bad state.

He also said construction of Maitengwe Police Station had taken too long and decried the effects of human-wildlife conflict on the livelihood of constituents.

With regards to ICT the MP said it offered many opportunities, adding that government spent millions purchasing software which could be made locally because there was no political will.

Serowe North MP, Mr Baratiwa Mathoothe for his part, said Batswana were looking forward to the forensic audit of the government systems which ought to be done within the boundaries of the law.

MP Mathoothe said the previous government deprived people of their civic rights and gave an example of Serowe where he said the community was denied access to their kgotla.

As such, he said the pronouncement that the country would be human rights based was a huge relief for many people.

He also supported the legalising cultivation of industrial hemp as it would provide various opportunities for the country and its economy. BOPA