{"id":22334,"date":"2023-02-18T06:52:19","date_gmt":"2023-02-18T06:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/two-former-francistown-councillors-slug-it-out-in-parliament"},"modified":"2023-02-18T08:03:28","modified_gmt":"2023-02-18T08:03:28","slug":"two-former-francistown-councillors-slug-it-out-in-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/two-former-francistown-councillors-slug-it-out-in-parliament","title":{"rendered":"Two former Francistown councillors slug it out in parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. <\/strong><\/span>It is unclear whether the third former Francistown councillor was in the chamber at the material time but for a good five or so minutes, two former councillors of Botswana\u2019s second city slugged it out bare-knuckled.<\/b><\/p>\n

The slugfest began when Francistown West MP, Ignatius Moswaane, tried asking a parliamentary question about drug shortage without having first notified the Speaker and relevant minister as is standard practice. While parliamentary rules permit this, the arrangement gives the Speaker and the minister a lot of discretion. In exercise of such discretion, the Acting Speaker, Pono Moatlhodi, denied Moswaane permission to ask the question \u2013 at which point all hell broke loose.<\/p>\n

\u201cBotswana has no insulin and diabetic patients are dying in large numbers,\u201d claimed Moswaane, adding a second later that the recent deaths of two Botswana Democratic Party councillors, whom he didn\u2019t name, was due to the acute shortage of insulin at government health facilities.<\/p>\n

Moatlhodi would have deemed the latter allegation to be a little too much because he immediately switched off Moswaane\u2019s microphone. The effect of the latter was limited because, possibly amplified by Moatlhodi\u2019s own microphone, Moswaane\u2019s voice was still audible. He complained about patients being \u201ctrapped\u201d at Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital in Francistown and of often having to shoulder the burden of paying their transport fare to Gaborone to get medical help.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not going to allow this to happen anymore,\u201d he charged, adding that the Minister of Health, Dr. Edwin Dikoloti is \u201cuseless\u201d and a little later, that he is \u201ccorrupt.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tirade went on until Moatlhodi instructed four security guards to \u201cthrow him out. I have had enough of him.\u201d Undeterred, Moswaane dared the guards to try manhandling him.<\/p>\n

\u201cCome! I\u2019ll show you,\u201d Moswaane\u2019s voice was heard to say off-frame.<\/p>\n

In the past, the cameras would have stayed on Moswaane as he spat fire but the new see-no-evil-hear-no-evil rules have changed all that. The rules say that when there is gross misconduct by MPs, \u201cthe camera shall focus on the Speaker or Chair for as long as proceedings continue or until order has been restored.\u201d In the case of unparliamentary behaviour, \u201cthe camera shall focus on the Speaker or Chair and shall do so if he or she rises, but occasional wide-angle shots of the Chambers may be shown.\u201d The standing orders define \u201cgross misconduct\u201d as \u201cincidents of individual, but more likely collective, misconduct of serious disruptive nature as to place in jeopardy, the continuation of the sitting\u201d and \u201cunparliamentary behaviour\u201d as \u201cany conduct which amounts to defiance of the Chair but falls short of gross misconduct.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nothing suggests that Moswaane ever got to show the guards what he promised when they showed him to the door. On the contrary, it is the guards who may have showed him whatever it was that was being shown last Friday morning. Minutes after he had been forcibly ejected from the chamber and Moatlhodi was reading him the riot act in absentia, the voice of a UDC MP was heard to ask repeatedly: \u201cJaanong ene o kgamelwa eng? Ke eng a sa kukiwe?\u201d [Why did they throttle him? Why couldn\u2019t they lift him up?\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Moatlhodi and Moswaane have served as Francistown councillors at different times. The third former Francistown councillor in the current parliament, who like Moswaane also became mayor, is Buti Billy the Assistant Minister of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture. By visibility standards that Moatlhodi and Moswaane have long introduced to parliament, the latter has consistently kept a low profile.<\/p>\n

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

Africa-Press – Botswana. It is unclear whether the third former Francistown councillor was in the chamber at the material time but for a good five or so minutes, two former councillors of Botswana\u2019s second city slugged it out bare-knuckled. The slugfest began when Francistown West MP, Ignatius Moswaane, tried asking a parliamentary question about drug […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":22332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-22334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-botswana","tag-botswana"],"yoast_head":"\nTwo former Francistown councillors slug it out in parliament - Botswana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It is unclear whether the third former Francistown councillor was in the chamber at the material time but for a good ...\" \/>\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\/two-former-francistown-councillors-slug-it-out-in-parliament\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Two former Francistown councillors slug it out in parliament\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It is unclear whether the third former Francistown councillor was in the chamber at the material time but for a good ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/two-former-francistown-councillors-slug-it-out-in-parliament\" \/>\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=\"2023-02-18T06:52:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-02-18T08:03:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2023\/02\/postQueueImg_1676690612.48.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\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\/two-former-francistown-councillors-slug-it-out-in-parliament#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/two-former-francistown-councillors-slug-it-out-in-parliament\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Two former Francistown councillors slug it out in parliament\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-02-18T06:52:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-02-18T08:03:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/two-former-francistown-councillors-slug-it-out-in-parliament\"},\"wordCount\":611,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/two-former-francistown-councillors-slug-it-out-in-parliament#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2023\/02\/postQueueImg_1676690612.48.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Botswana\",\"Botswana\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/two-former-francistown-councillors-slug-it-out-in-parliament#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/two-former-francistown-councillors-slug-it-out-in-parliament\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/two-former-francistown-councillors-slug-it-out-in-parliament\",\"name\":\"Two former Francistown councillors slug it out in parliament - 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