Poor quality of debates in Parliament

A troubling trend is that of cabinet ministers who do not bother to attend to the House to answer questions from the MPs. Since the delivery of the State of the Nation Address (SONA) by President Ian Khama, some ministers have not been attending Parliament and many questions have not been unanswered. When the ministers answer questions they are very evasive and angry. Some of them are not afraid to mislead Parliament. The worst culprits are special elected MPs, who forget that they have not entered Parliament by popular vote but were handpicked by Khama and given plump cabinet positions. These ministers offer poor quality answers and can be very arrogant.

Last Friday, an opposition legislator posed a number of topical questions during Ministers’ Question Time session. MP Ndaba Gaolathe had asked the Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Kenneth Matambo on the Economic Stimulus Package (ESP), National Development Plan 11 and Vision 2036.