Masisi attacks younger brother over poverty

BAME PIET
Staff Writer | Wednesday December 8, 2010 00:00

 

Masisi is elder brother to Assistant Minister of Presidential Affairs and Public Administration Mokgweetsi Masisi, who is the face of the poverty eradication programme.

'My younger brother here is running around on an impossible mission of poverty eradication but it is government that is creating poverty amongst Batswana,' he said.

The senior Masisi who has been Member of Parliament for Francistown West since 1999 lashed out at Ministry of Trade and Industry for issuing trade licences to Chinese companies and individuals for businesses that could be reserved for Batswana.

He claimed this has killed Batswana-owned companies who have now resorted to renting out their business buildings to the Chinese.

He said the Ministry of Lands and Housing is also impoverishing Batswana, as it is repossessing their land although they are aware that some Batswana are unable to utilize their land because of lack of resources.

He noted that it is not fair to dispose poor people of their land to give it to the rich and foreigners. Masisi further observed that this has also resulted in many selling their ploughing fields and residential plots to foreigners because they offer better prices than government and fellow Batswana.

Masisi then turned his smoking guns on the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism saying wild animals kill livestock but the owners are not compensated with money equivalent to what they have lost.

He said if wild animals kill cattle, then there should be a process through which the owner can be compensated with the same.

He suggested the matimela (lost and found) livestock should be used to compesate affected farmers. He said a herd of cattle should be replaced with the same while a goat should be replaced with a goat.

The ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources did not escape Masisi's gunfire, as he accused it of doing strange things.

He said the Ipelegeng programme could be used to build small dams for sustenance instead of weeding road reserves. He called for an urgent review of Ipelegeng saying it has the potential to kill the labour force in Botswana as well as the spirit of self-reliance.

Goig against the grain of thought of the ruling party, Masisi also suggested that the Constitution should be reviewed, and that government should consider funding of political parties to strengthen the country's democracy and accommodate young people's views. He said he is against Automatic succession and that the President should be elected directly. 'We can start with President Ian Khama who is young and popular. They will vote for him,' he said.

Masisi insisted that the passenger train halted early last year should start operating again as a matter of urgency as buses are expensive for ordinary people.

Botswana Railways has shifted from its core business to concentrate in the investment of the huge multi million Pula shopping mall project in Gaborone.

Masisi's terrade against the BDP governmen did not therefore mean he intedend decamping, he said, accusing 'newcomers' of destabilising the party, something he said that has led to the formation of Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD). He accused some individuals of causing trouble in the BDP stating that he would 'refuse to be expelled' by anybody from the party he so loves.

Masisi endorsed opposition views that the Directorate of Intelligence Servces (DIS) should stay out of politics. He said some ministries need divine intervention for things to go right adding that government should increase public servants' salaries next year.

Among the government services that have gone up at the beginning of this year are payment for drivers licence, payment for replacement of Omang, payment for passport, VAT, water and electricity tariffs, transport fares, and food prices.