Says Molale does not take House of Chiefs seriously
QUEEN MOSARWE
Kgosi Puso Gaborone has expressed extreme disappointment with Presidential Affairs Minister Eric Molale for failing to attend a session of the House of Chiefs on Monday.
Gaborone said he was even more disappointed by the fact that the House falls under the ambit of Molale’s ministry.
“It is disappointing to hear that Minister Molale and his assistant are not coming while this House business is known,” said Gaborone after Local Government Minister Botlogile Tshireletso passed Molale’s apology to the House.
Molale was expected to make the First Reading of the Constitution Amendment Bill (No 3 of 2016), but was said to be “held up elsewhere” by Tshireletso.
Gaborone said Molale was also surprising considering that he is the one who had referred the Bill to Ntlo ya Dikgosi for discussion and was to read it before the House.
“Questions were noticed to start tomorrow ( Tuesday) and this then means today becomes a wasted day as we can’t do anything without the reading of the bill amendment, ” said Gaborone infuriarated.
He told Tshireletso to tell Molale when she sees him that the bill was given priority and that is was not for the House to follow him up because he is the one who brought the bill. “It is actually everyone’s responsibility who refers their Bill to this House to make follow up, not the other way round,” he said.
Tshireletso however said that she had warned Molale’s office about the consequence of his absence. “I told the secretary that I saw from the notice paper last week that they were to present on Monday and he told me that the notice paper was not sent to them.”
Gaborone also took issue with the fact that the Ministry wasted the House’s day, saying it is always precarious when they themselves request for the extension of days to finish House business. “We have five days for our business, which we have always said was too little to attend to all the motions and questions: If I was to propose that they give back our day which they wasted, none of them will agree. This is so unfair to us and also does not reflect well on us before the people,” he said.
The constitution amendment bill in question seeks to increase the number of Ministers from 16 to 18, Assistant Ministers from 8 to 10 and Specially Elected Members of Parliament from 4 to 6.