Member of Parliament for Francistown East, Buti Billy has raised concern over escalating cases of drug trafficking and abuse in Francistown calling for an integrated approach to combat this worsening situation.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Buti said that the police have since raised concern to him over drug trafficking especially marijuana and cocaine. Although he did not have statistics at the time, he said the situation as it is now needs serious intervention.
“Last week I also held a number of Kgotla meetings in different areas in Francistown and the residents expressed similar concerns over the abuse of drugs and trafficking in the city especially by the youth. Drugs continue to be a serious problem for Francistown and the most painful part is that students are also now seriously involved in this illicit trend. It pains me to see students getting hooked in this predicament because they are the future leaders of our country. Drugs are destroying our communities and there is a serious need for intervention,” he said.
He said according to the police, most of the drugs trafficked into the country are marijuana, cocaine and even heroine. He also said that the drug trafficking is done by Batswana in collaboration with foreigners.
“Francistown has got a lot of movement as it is the gateway to the North African countries; therefore these drugs find their way into the country from some of these countries. I think we need to pull our socks and combat this scourge before it completely destroys our society,” he said. He said it is high time that the police, community leaders, religious leaders, parents, teachers and students unite in efforts to fight this problem. He said the police cannot be bestowed with the responsibility to fight the problem alone as it requires conceited efforts from all stakeholders.
“I however feel that the police are doing their best to fight the problem but I feel that they need our support as the community and leaders. I also feel that there is still a lot that needs to be done by all of us to educate our communities especially the youth on the repercussions of drug abuse,” he said.
On a different note Buti affirmed his support for the current amendment bill before parliament which requires churches to increase their membership from the usual 10 to 250 members to be registered. This bill was raised as a way of curbing the mushrooming of churches in the country.
┬á“I fully support this bill because it can help reduce the mushrooming of churches in the country. Most of these churches are not well managed and some of them are here to rip off Batswana while some are run by crooks. It is even possible that some of these churches are involved in acts of Satanism. By reducing their numbers, it would be easier for government to monitor them. Here in Francistown the mushrooming of churches is a serious concern because we have limited land. Most of the meetings I held in my constituents have shown that people are in full support of this bill” he said.
