{"id":22225,"date":"2023-02-16T14:35:35","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T14:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/lesaso-urges-batswana-to-meet-govt-halfway"},"modified":"2023-02-16T15:46:43","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T15:46:43","slug":"lesaso-urges-batswana-to-meet-govt-halfway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/lesaso-urges-batswana-to-meet-govt-halfway","title":{"rendered":"LESASO URGES BATSWANA TO MEET GOVT HALFWAY"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. <\/strong><\/span>Batswana have been urged to meet government halfway in utilising initiatives tailor-made to address poverty to ensure they bear fruit.<\/b><\/p>\n

Member of Parliament for Shoshong, who is also the Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development, Mr Aubrey Lesaso said this on Tuesday in his contribution to the debate on the proposed budget for the 2023\/2024 financial year.<\/p>\n

Mr Lesaso indicated that government had in place, good initiatives such as ISPAAD and LIMID, adding, however, that for the initiatives to succeed, beneficiaries also had to play their part rather than placing everything on the shoulders of the benefactor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are instances where Batswana used ISPAAD to plough, but later abandoned their fields, while others used LIMID to take some small-stock which later failed to multiply because of lack of care.<\/p>\n

These habits are of concern because they might render government assistance redundant,\u201d he cautioned.<\/p>\n

On the issue of value chain, Mr Lesaso said many Batswana were lacking in understanding the benefits of value chain from local products, something he said government needed to intensify education on.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost Batswana only know as far as selling their cattle or farm products.<\/p>\n

They are not aware that they can make more money by selling cattle products such as offal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Lesaso cited gall stones, which he said could fetch as high as $13 000 per kilogramme in the eastern counties where it is used for medicinal purposes.<\/p>\n

On issues of education, Mr Lesaso said it was vital that government ensured timely delivery of projects, because late delivery could impact on the economy.<\/p>\n

He, however, expressed reservations that the budget failed to cater for backlogs at junior schools, most of which he said were constructed around 1985 and were now lacking on current necessities such as Internet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe current education stresses the use of technology, but most of our schools do not have provision that would enable such, so we need assets and infrastructure maintenance to bring them up to date,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also cited lack of air conditioning, which he said was a necessity in schools, looking at the current high temperatures brought about by climate change.<\/p>\n

Contributing to the debate, Member of Parliament for Ngami, Mr Caterpillar Hikuama said government should have increased the old age pension to at least P1 000.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ideal should be P1 500, but P1 000 would have been better.<\/p>\n

A P1 000 increment would have cost government an additional P36 million on the budget, an increment of P1 200 would have meant P56 million on top while P1 500 would have meant P87 million.<\/p>\n

I have no doubt this was not beyond the coffers of government it there was a will,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Hikuama also urged government to guard against what he termed wasteful expenditure and corruption, which he said hampered all efforts aimed at good revenue collection.<\/p>\n

The legislator also urged government to take high unemployment rate seriously, especially among the youth so that they could also enjoy the economic growth as was reported in the budget speech.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Botswana<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. Batswana have been urged to meet government halfway in utilising initiatives tailor-made to address poverty to ensure they bear fruit. Member of Parliament for Shoshong, who is also the Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development, Mr Aubrey Lesaso said this on Tuesday in his contribution to the debate on the proposed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":22224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-22225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-botswana","tag-botswana"],"yoast_head":"\nLESASO URGES BATSWANA TO MEET GOVT HALFWAY - Botswana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Batswana have been urged to meet government halfway in utilising initiatives tailor-made to address poverty to ensure ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/lesaso-urges-batswana-to-meet-govt-halfway\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LESASO URGES BATSWANA TO MEET GOVT HALFWAY\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Batswana have been urged to meet government halfway in utilising initiatives tailor-made to address poverty to ensure ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/lesaso-urges-batswana-to-meet-govt-halfway\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Botswana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-02-16T14:35:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-02-16T15:46:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2023\/02\/postQueueImg_1676547842.31.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1728\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1152\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/lesaso-urges-batswana-to-meet-govt-halfway#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/lesaso-urges-batswana-to-meet-govt-halfway\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"LESASO URGES BATSWANA TO MEET GOVT HALFWAY\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-02-16T14:35:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-02-16T15:46:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/lesaso-urges-batswana-to-meet-govt-halfway\"},\"wordCount\":516,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/lesaso-urges-batswana-to-meet-govt-halfway#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2023\/02\/postQueueImg_1676547842.31.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Botswana\",\"Botswana\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/lesaso-urges-batswana-to-meet-govt-halfway#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/lesaso-urges-batswana-to-meet-govt-halfway\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/lesaso-urges-batswana-to-meet-govt-halfway\",\"name\":\"LESASO URGES BATSWANA TO MEET GOVT HALFWAY - 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