01 Jul 2014

The Botswana Congress Party (BCP) is committed to ensuring that Batswana receive wages that enable them to live comfortably, says party member, Mr Elias Mbonini.

Speaking at the launch of the Tati West parliamentary candidate, Dr Phillip Bulawa in Masunga on June 29, Mr Mbonini said in addition to the minimum wage being too low, some of the programmes put in place to counter unemployment served to only worsen people’s misery as they too were paid low amounts.

Mr Mbonini, who is a council candidate for Masunga ward, pointed out that programmes such as Green Scorpions, Ipelegeng and Tirelo Setshaba would not help improve the beneficiaries’ lives in any way, save to waste the time that could have been spent engaging in other meaningful activities.

Another speaker, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse, who is a parliamentary candidate for Selebi Phikwe West, said the low wages paid to workers were to blame for high levels of poverty.

He said in comparison to other countries, the set minimum wages for Botswana were way below par; stating that if voted into power, the BCP would ensure that workers were paid a reasonable wage that would allow them to live comfortably.

On a different issue, Mr Keorapetse said the BCP was concerned about the high rate of unemployment, noting that the current situation where Botswana continued to import labour was undesirable and he attributed the situation to the poor state of the country’s education.

Mr Keorapetse indicated that had the education been relevant to the needs of the market, Botswana could be exporting labour and in the process affording Batswana the opportunity to land jobs in other countries.

For her part, Ms Anna Motlhagodi, reiterated the concern of high levels of unemployment, especially amongst the youth. Furthermore, she said it was disheartening that many Batswana still did not benefit from their country’s wealth despite having attained independence over four decades ago.

Dr Bulawa said the constituency lagged behind in developments, pointing out that his party would ensure that the situation changed. Dr Bulawa informed the gathering that one of his key priorities would be to lobby for the North East District to have a referral hospital.

He said some lives had been lost in the past while patients were being transported to Francistown’s Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital for better medical care, hence the need for a district referral hospital.

Dr Bulawa said if voted into office, he would ensure that the long promised education centre is constructed to help improve education in the district. ENDS