Parly administration should account

Mmegi Editor | Friday May 26, 2017 11:00

This has been going on for years and we are aware it is not the legislators’ own doing but the National Assembly administration. And the National Assembly has the audacity to say the MPs will pay back the bills. How absurd! How will they force the MPs to back pay the bills when they are no meters boxes for electricity and water consumption at the Parliamentary village?

Why were those houses built without the necessary water and electricity meter boxes? Our take is that this was a clear intention to rob the poor Batswana who are forced to pay their bills without fail. And the water and power authorities are always impatient with defaulters, an average consumer can attest to that. Water Utilities Corporation and Botswana Power Corporation take delight in cutting services for defaulters.

Although the Parliamentarians are not to blame for being pampered like rich brats, they did not say a word when the aforementioned corporations increased their tariffs by close to 50% this year. They kept quiet because they knew that they are exempted from being billed through the nose. Now that the matter was discussed during Public Accounts Committee, we expected the Parliament administration to act decisively and instal the meters at the Parliamentary village as a matter of fact.

 

RIP Comrade Pat

The nation is mourning the death of one of the greatest men that has ever bestrode this wonderful country like a colossus; comrade Patrick van Rensburg. 

He died in his adopted village of Serowe on Tuesday. It is common knowledge that Pat as he was affectionally called is the founder of this monumental newspaper, Mmegi. It is also common cause that he also founded brigades and came up with the theory of Education with Production in Botswana. The South African-born van Rensburg was a communist to his death.

At one point he was a member of the Botswana National Front Central Committee, which he later quit so he could be free in his writings in his column for his beloved Mmegi.

Before he settled in Botswana he forwent all the trappings of apartheid South Africa and spoke against the evil system.

That was a bold decision taken by van Rensburg who once served as South African Vice-Consul in the Belgian Congo (now Democratic Republic of Congo) in the 1950s. Only a few principled Whites took that decision.

Despite his colossal contribution to education in Botswana, the government of the day never acknowledged the role played by this giant. Indeed this is a thankless country. Rest in Eternal Peace Comrade Pat! Hamba Kahle!

Robala ka Kagiso mokaulengwe!

Today's Thought

'It is a huge loss to the country because Pat was well ahead of his time. '

-Metlhaetsile Leepile