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Who would know? Or would it be mandatory for them to declare only specific types of assets such as company directorships and major share holdings; with appropriate penalties for failing to do so? What can be the value of this process if, as seems likely, it will be so widely flouted?
Second - the budget and the budget debate - last week Shaw Kgathi MP questioned the value of the debate and Minister Phandu Skelemani explained that it allows MPs to express their opinions on matters on the budget and, ‘for the executive branch to take action where necessary’. As it seems that such action is rarely taken, it could help our understanding if Messrs Dingake and Gabaake could explain, from their own experience, how they assess the value of the two-week budget debate in terms of the processes of democratic government.
Three. The North South Water Carrier. In 1983, the level of the Gaborone Dam fell to 0% and unsurprisingly, there was much talk of temporarily shifting elements of the capital to places further north where there was water. In the years following, enormous sums of money were spent to ensure that such a scenario did not recur - at least within our lifetime. An agreement was reached with those on the other side that Gaborone would receive water from the Molatedi Dam and the required pipeline was laid. The Bokaa and Letsibogo Dams were built and the country’s biggest ever project, a north south water pipeline and complex system was constructed. But here we are, back in 1983 again! The level of the Gaborone Dam is the lowest in 22 years and further water restrictions appear imminent because the derided N-S water carrier cannot do what it is supposed to do - carry water! What now? Abandon all or part of it because the costs of continuing maintenance are so high that the unsubsidized cost of water to the consumer would result in the overnight re-location of the major part of the private sector to other places? Isn’t it time that MPs (and the country) are told what went wrong, the implications, and why the second, recently proposed pipeline will be more effective than the one we now have?
Four - the notion which Botsalo Ntuane MP is likely to pursue for the next four years that the government should stop advertising in those commercial newspapers which fail to be sufficiently supportive of government and/or unreasonably criticize it. This school classroom logic, that if you are unfair to me, I can be unfair to you, will inevitably exercise a degree of appeal. But to have value as a workable strategy, it would have to be universally applied. Thus, the general public would need to be given significant power of redress over the state media, written, spoken or seen, comparable to the opt out powers that the state holds over the commercial media. And similarly, accusation without proof would have to be accepted as valid. Thus it would only be fair, and Ntuane is a fair man, that any perceived error, bias, misdirection, inaccuracy in reporting or presentation would and should be heavily dealt with by an aggrieved public. Yes, I do think that it is getting as absurd as this. Let’s start thinking again.
Five - the closure of the Coop Bank Would PvR please give us the background because most of us will not know it. Why would highly placed bureaucrats want to close a viable bank? And why was the liquidators report suppressed, whom by and how?
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