BCP MPs join UDC in Parliament
Staff Writer | Thursday August 10, 2017 16:01
Kokorwe said she has received a letter from the opposition party informing her to recognise its MPs as members of the UDC and change the sitting arrangement in Parliament.
The duo, Dithapelo Keorapetse and Samuel Rantuana, are MPs for Selebi-Phikwe West and Ramotswa respectively. The announcement puts to rest the skepticism that surrounded the issue of the status of the BCP in the UDC.
This week, BCP president Dumelang Saleshando wrote to Kokorwe informing her to recognise their MPs as members of the UDC. There have also been reports that some members of the BCP wanted out of the UDC in the wake of emerging reports of unrest within the UDC. This means that now there are only two parties recognised in Parliament, the UDC and ruling Botswana Democratic Party.
Meanwhile, the Assistant Minister of Agricultural Development and Food Security Kgotla Autlwetse told Parliament that his ministry has paid approximately P201 million to 74,782 farmers during the 2016/17 cropping season.
This, he said, covered 250,908.81 hectares of land of ploughed fields. He also stated that 25,618 farmers are owed the sum of P20, 495, 184.04 for 133,156.19 hectares.
Autlwetse admitted that there have been delays in payments to farmers due to late submissions of supporting documents.
“The delay in payments was due to late submission of supporting documents by the farmers and shortage of transport in measuring the ploughed fields. Furthermore, some supporting documents from the farmers are submitted with mistakes that should be corrected prior to processing the payments. However, my ministry intends to pay all these beneficiaries by August 25, 2017,” Autlwetse said.
He said that during the 2016/17 cropping season, 384,065 hectares have been planted by 100,200 farmers compared to 292,033 hectares planted by 75,001 farmers in the previous cropping season. “This indicates that the area planted and the number of farmers that utilised the Integrated Support Programme for Arable Agricultural Development Programme (ISPAAD) increased by 92,032 hectares and 25,199 hectares respectively. The high hecterage planted in 2016/17 cropping season is attributable to the good rains,” he added. Autlwetse further told Parliament that they were working on finding ways to deal with staff and transport shortage. However, he pointed out that this could not be achieved overnight.
He was responding to a question from MP for Takatokwane Ngaka Ngaka, who had asked the minister to update Parliament on the late payments of ISPAAD, especially tractor owners.