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Saleshando becomes the most toppled LOO in history

Botswana Congress Party (BCP) leader, Dumelang Saleshando, has once again lost his Leader of Opposition (LOO) position, having suffered the same fate twice in previous spells between 2012 and 2014.

The latest development, owing to instability in opposition ranks, mean Saleshando is the most toppled opposition leader in the history of Botswana parliament, and he is yet to complete a parliamentary term at the helm. Barely, a week after being suspended from Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), Saleshando lost his seat after UDC caucus resolved to removed him from his position. In his stead, Dithapelo Keorapetse, a BCP Member of Parliament, was chosen as the new Leader of Opposition.

Saleshando has a ruinous relationship with the position, having first ascended to it in 2012 on account of BCP gaining majority number in the opposition benches as a result of defections. BCP, which has started the 10thparliament with only 6 MPs, increased numbers when some MPs defected to the party in 2012.

Meanwhile, the Botswana Movement for Democracy, (BMD) which held the position between 2010 and 2012 suffered defections, when a significant number of its founding MPs, including then Leader of Opposition and party Vice President, Botsalo Ntuaneretraced their footsteps to the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP).

In February 2012, the Leader of Opposition seat was declared vacant, after Prince Maele, then MP for Tswapong North, successfully tabled a motion in parliament to declare the position vacant due to tie in numbers between BMD and BCP. Prior to that, and in the back of the collapsed opposition cooperation talks, BCP and Botswana National Front (BNF) MPs had moved to topple Ntuane from the position. The MPs wrote a letter, signed by MPs from both parties, declaring that Isaac Mabiletsa has been appointed the new Leader of Opposition, a move which saw Maele taking advantage of the circus to introduce his motion.

The position was restored after BNF President, Duma Boko, engineered a pact coalition between BNF and BMD in parliament, resulting in Ntuane resuming his position. However, freakish defections between February and June that year, saw BCP gaining numerical advantage over its other opposition parties.BNF MPs Mephato Reatile, Isaac Mabiletsa and Kentse Rammidi tendered their resignation from the party. Reatile joined BDP, while Mabiletsa and Rammidi joined BCP.

In an unprecedented move, Ntuane also resigned from BMD and re-joined BDP. In the winter session of 2012, Saleshando ascended to the position of Leader of Opposition for the first time. However, Saleshando was toppled four months later in November, when BNF and BMD MPs subsequent to the launching of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) declared that they now belong to the new party. The move created a tie of eight MPs each for BCP and UDC.

It was not until February 2014 that Saleshando will once again rise to the position of Leader of Opposition, in back of BCP victory in Francistown West bye-election. Habaudi Hubona had won the seat in the election that was marred by controversy. BDP, for the first time in history, was barred from fielding a parliamentary candidate after Francistown High Court ruled that the party did not conduct its primary elections procedurally.

However, in June that year, barely four months after returning to the seat, Saleshando was toppled again from the seat. The development was caused by the defection of Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, and MP for Tonota, Pono Moatlhodi to the UDC, which saw its number tie with BCP.

Since Dr Kenneth Koma, the longest serving Leader of Opposition, who was at the helm between 1985 and 2003, only Boko has completed a parliamentary term as Leader of Opposition. Boko was the Leader of Opposition during the 11thparliament (2014 and 2019) after UDC emerged from the elections with historic 17 seats, while BCP had three.

LEADER OF OPPOSITION
PARTY
YEAR
Philip Matante
Botswana Peoples Party
1965 – 1974
Bathoen Gaseitsiwe
Botswana National Front
1979 – 1984
Kenneth S. Koma
Botswana National Front
1985 2003
Nehemiah Modubule
Botswana National Front
2003-2004
Akanyang Magama
Botswana National Front
2004-2005
Otsweletse Moupo
Botswana National Front
2005-2009
Olebile Gaborone
Botswana National Front
2009-2010
Botsalo Ntuane
Botswana Movement for Democracy
2010-2012
Dumelang Saleshando
Botswana Congress Party
2012
Dumelang Saleshando
Botswana Congress Party
2013
Duma Boko
Umbrella for Democratic Change
2014-2019
Dumelang Saleshando
Umbrella for Democratic Change
2019 – 2022
Dithapelo Keorapetse
Umbrella for Democratic Change
2022 to date

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ENVIRONMENT ISSUES: Masisi asks Virginia for help

24th March 2023

President Mokgweetsi Masisi says the issue of sustainable natural resources management has always been an important part of Botswana’s national development agenda.

Masisi was speaking this week on the occasion of a public lecture at Virginia Polytechnic, under theme, “Merging Conservation, Democracy and Sustainable Development in Botswana.”

Botswana, according to Masisi, holds the view that the environment is fragile and as such, must be managed and given the utmost protection to enable the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“It is necessary that we engage one another in the interchange of ideas, perspectives, visualizations of social futures, and considerations of possible strategies and courses of action for sustainable development,” said Masisi.

On the other hand, dialogue, in the form of rigorous democratic discourse among stakeholders presents another basis for reconfiguring how people act on their environments, with a view to conserving its resources that “we require to meet our socio-economic development needs on a sustainable basis,” Masisi told attendees at the public lecture.

He said government has a keen interest in understanding the epidemiology and ecology of diseases of both domestic and wild animals. “It is our national interest to forestall the dire consequences of animal diseases on our communities livelihoods.”

President Masisi hoped that both Botswana and Virginia could help each other in curbing contagious diseases of wildlife.

“We believe that Virginia Tech can reasonably share their experiences, research insights and advances in veterinary sciences and medicines, to help us build capacity for knowledge creation and improve efforts of managing and containing contagious diseases of wildlife. The ground is fertile for entering into such a mutually beneficial partnership.”

When explaining environmental issues further, Masisi said efforts of conservation and sustainable development might at times be hampered by the emergence and recurrence of diseases when pathogens mutate and take host of more than one species.

“Water pollution also kills aquatic life, such as fish, which is one of humanity’s much deserved sources of food. In this regard, One Health Approach imposes ecological responsibility upon all of us to care for the environment and the bio-diversity therein.”

He said the production and use of animal vaccines is an important space and tool for conservation, particularly to deal with trans-border animal diseases.

“In Botswana, our 43-year-old national premier pharmaceutical institution called Botswana Vaccine Institute has played its role well. Through its successful production of highly efficacious Foot and Mouth vaccines, the country is able to contain this disease as well as supply vaccines to other countries in the sub-region.:

He has however declared that there is need for more help, saying “We need more capacitation to deal with and contain other types of microbial that affect both animals and human health.”

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Masisi saddened by deaths of elephant attacks

24th March 2023

President Mokgweetsi Masisi has expressed a strong worry over elephants killing people in Botswana. When speaking in Virginia this week, Masisi said it is unfortunate that Batswana have paid a price with their own blood through being attacked by elephants.

“Communities also suffer unimaginable economic losses yearly when their crops are eaten by the elephants. In spite of such incidents of human-elephant conflict, our people embrace living together with the animals. They fully understand wildlife conservation and its economic benefits in tourism.”

In 2018, Nthobogang Samokwase’s father was attacked by an elephant when travelling from the fields, where he stayed during the cropping season.

It was reported that the man couldn’t run because of his age. He was found trampled by the elephant and was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.

In the same year, in Maun, a 57-year-old British woman was attacked by an elephant at Boro and died upon arrival at the hospital. The woman was with her Motswana partner, and were walking dogs in the evening.

Last month, a Durban woman named Carly Marshall survived an elephant attack while on holiday in the bush in Botswana. She was stabbed by one of the elephant’s tucks through the chest and was left with bruises. Marshall also suffered several fractured ribs from the ordeal.

President Masisi Botswana has the largest population of African elephants in the world, totaling more than 130 000. “This has been possible due to progressive conservation policies, partnerships with the communities, and investment in wildlife management programmes.”

In order to benefit further from wildlife, Masisi indicated that government has re-introduced controlled hunting in 2019 after a four-year pause. “The re-introduction of hunting was done in an open, transparent and democratic way, giving the communities an opportunity to air their views. The funds from the sale of hunting quota goes towards community development and elephant conservation.”

He stressed that for conservation to succeed, the local people must be involved and derive benefits from the natural resources within their localities.

“There must be open and transparent consultations which involve all sectors of the society. It is against this backdrop that as a country, we lead the continent on merging conservation, democracy and sustainable development.”

Masisi stated that Botswana is open to collaborative opportunities, “particularly with identifiable partners such as Virginia Tech, in other essential areas such as conservation, and the study of the interplay among the ecology of diseases of wild animals and plants, and their effects on human health and socio-economic development.”

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Gov’t commit to injecting more funds in fighting HIV

24th March 2023

Minister for State President Kabo Morwaeng says government will continue to make resources available in terms of financial allocations and human capital to ensure that Botswana achieves the ideal of eradicating HIV and AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.

Morwaeng was speaking this morning in Gaborone at the High-Level Advocacy event to accelerate HIV Prevention in Botswana. He said the National AIDS and Health Promotion Agency (NAPHA), in partnership with UNAIDS, UN agencies, the Global Fund and PEPFAR, have started a process of developing transition readiness plan for sustainability of HIV prevention and treatment programmes.

“It is important for us, as a country that has had a fair share of donor support in the response to an epidemic such as HIV and AIDS, to look beyond the period when the level of assistance would have reduced, or ceased, thus calling for domestic financing for all areas which were on donor support.”

Morwaeng said this is important as the such a plan will guarantee that all the gains accrued from the response with donor support will be sustained until the end when “we reach the elimination of HIV and AIDS as a public health threat by 20230,” he said.

“I commit to continue support efforts towards strengthened HIV prevention, accentuating HIV primary prevention and treatment as prevention towards Zero New Infections, Zero Stigma, Discrimination and Zero AIDS related death, to end AIDS in Botswana.”

He reiterated that government commits to tackle legislative, policy and programming challenges that act as barriers to the achievement of the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat.

In the financial year 2022/2023, a total of 119 Civil Society Organizations, including Faith Based Organizations, were contracted with an amount of P100 million to implement HIV and NCDs prevention activities throughout the country, and the money was drawn from the Consolidated Fund.

Through an upcoming HIV Prevention Symposium, technical stakeholders will use outcomes to develop the Botswana HIV Prevention Acceleration Road Map for 2023-2025.

Morwaeng stated that government will support and ensure that Botswana plays its part achieving the road map. He said there is need to put hands on the deck to ensure that Botswana sustains progress made so far in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

“There are tremendous achievements thus far to, reach and surpass the UNAIDS fast track targets of 95%- 95%- 95% by the year 2025. As reflected by the BAIS preliminary results of 2021, we now stand at 95- 98- 98 against the set targets.”

“These achievements challenge us to now shift our gears and strive to know who are the remaining 5% for those aware of their HIV status, 2% of enrolment on treatment by those aware of their status and 2% of viral suppression by those on treatment.”

Explaining this further, Morwaeng said shift in gears should extend to coming up with robust strategies of determining where these remaining people are as well as how they will be reached with the necessary services.

“These are just some of the many variables that are required to ensure that as a country, we are well positioned to reaching the last mile of our country’s response to the HIV and AIDS pandemic.”

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