The Chairman of the House of Chiefs, Kgosi Seepapitso, on Thursday criticized Ministers for what he said was their lack of respect for the House.
This followed the Ministers of Local Government, Margaret Nasha, and of Labour and Home Affairs, Charles Tibone’s failure to show up at the House to take questions from Members of the House as had been scheduled.
Seepapitso said this was not the first time that this had happened. On Monday of the same week, he said, other Ministers had also failed to turn up to answer questions from the House members. The Chairman said more disturbing was the fact that the ministers in question did not even send apologies.
“One would have expected that they would call to at least say that they were not coming for one reason or the other, but they did not do that which can only be taken to mean that they do not care about the House,” Seepapitso said.
He did not rule out the possibility of bringing this to the attention of Vice President Ian Khama.
Besides Seepapitso, several other Members of the House of Chiefs also complained about this saying it is a total lack of respect for the House. One of such Chiefs, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that this only paves the way for Chiefs to also snub Ministers when they visit their villages.
”Imagine a scenario where they would visit our villages and we retaliate by not attending their meetings. This will definitely be a very sad scenario but I can not rule out doing such a thing as retaliation in future”, said the Chief.
Another elected Kgosi also agreed that the non-appearance was a sign of a lack of respect for the House and that it should be stopped before it is too late.
This, he said, was a sign that Ministers feel that they are above everybody in this country and lack respect for the institution of Bogosi in general. He said higher authorities in government should intervene to solve this problem.
On other issues, Seepapitso said that the increase in their number in the House had been effective in that it brought in new voices which strengthened their institution.
”This has been a very exciting experience in the institution. They have brought new voices and ideas to the House,” he said.
On the question recently put before the Minister of Presidential Affairs, Daniel Kwelagobe, by Oleyo Ledimo on whether it was true that their House would be dissolved when Parliament is dissolved to pave way for elections in two years time, and not in five as had been expected, Seepapitso said that he knew nothing about the issue.
”I know nothing about that. We have not been informed about it,” he said.
Kwelagobe had apparently confirmed Ledimo’s fear that their House would be dissolved in three years time and not in five as widely expected.
