08 Sep 2019

Alliance for Progressives (AP) vice president and parliamentary hopeful for Francistown South says now that various political parties have presented their different manifestos to Batswana, time has come for voters to carefully analyse the promises contained therein with a view to vote into power credible people.

If due care was not exercised, according to Mr Wynter Mmolotsi, the country could fall into the hands of people with hidden agendas.

Mr Mmolotsi said this during the launch of AP prospective parliamentary and council candidates for Francistown East constituency in Francistown on September 7.

That decision, he believed should be guided by numerous factors among them, the practicability and credibility of such promises as well as the caliber of the people who lead the political parties.

He said voting for a party that promises miracles and wonders the moment it attained power as was the case with Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) was suicidal.

“These are the people who are very much aware that the economy of this country is in disarray and now that they are desperate and want your vote they promise you huge money as living wage. The question is where they are going to get the money from because since 2017/18, Botswana has been borrowing money,” he asked.

He said unlike other parties that had taken advantage of the plight of the workers and made empty promises just so they could gain votes, AP intended to first grow the economy of Botswana by 10 per cent annually for the next six years, if given a chance to rule and remunerate workers handsomely in accordance with the dictates of annual growth.

He stated that his party was serious about reducing import bill which currently stood at P71 billion to at least P20 billion by aggressively engaging in commercial agriculture over a 100 000 hectare land.

This, he said was contrary to UDC’s thinking to use the same chunk of land to plough hemp, which is a variety of cannabis.

The party’s parliamentary hopeful for Tati East, Mr Peter Ngoma said the BDP parliamentary representative for Francistown East had failed the people and denied them developments.

“Although Francistown had a total of three parliamentary representatives, Wynter Mmolotsi was the only voice that spoke for developments of this city, the rest were silent hence it is important that we make sure Theresa Mmolawa goes to parliament to complement Mr Mmolotsi,” he said. He encouraged fellow Progressives to work very hard and wrestle Francistown East away from BDP saying it was winnable.

For her part, Ms Mmolawa said if given an opportunity to be Francistown East MP, she make sure her constituents were allocated residential plots, which she said had stalled for many years now.

Stalled allocation of plots, she said, had caused misunderstandings in families because not only are siblings over crowded but ended up fighting for such homesteads upon the death of parents.

People, she cautioned should desist from allowing themselves to be bought with hand-outs by some politicians in exchange for their votes but should vote for credible people who could transform their lives for the better. ENDS