MP warns govt on xenophobia

Onalenna Kelebeile | Tuesday April 28, 2015 12:03

Addressing a kgotla meeting at Kagiso Customary Court last week, Keorapetse said out of the many companies with foreign employees, only 24 had submitted their training and localisation plans to government.

“If foreigners continue to work in the country without any strict measures to ensure that training and localisation plans are in place, how are locals going to benefit? This could lead to xenophobic attacks at some point,” he said.

He told the gathering that the Labour Minister had explained that companies argue that locals resign from work, lack commitment and have poor work ethic.

He suggested that a training and localisation plan should be a prerogative for foreign companies to be issued with permits to operate in the country.

“Companies must submit their localisation plans beforehand otherwise no foreigners should be employed at the expense of locals.  Batswana are literate enough to hold positions currently held by foreigners,” he argued.

The area MP further said that the number of women currently in decision-making positions is worrisome, citing figures showing that out of the 62 members of Parliament, only six are women.

He said one of the reasons behind this is that Botswana has not signed the SADC Protocols on Gender.

“We are one of the few countries who have not signed the Protocol and it is important that we do this in order to learn from other countries,” he added.

Touching on the land policy that was debated during the recently ended sitting of Parliament, Keorapetse said the opposition’s main concern was that the policy does not address the backlog of land allocation.

“The policy is not clear on how it will address land shortage and the long waiting lists,” he added.