All Quotes

"Our water, electricity, poverty and unemployment problems are a result of the bad choices we made. The ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) chose the wrong path and as a result inflicted pain and suffering on our people. America, Rwanda and the Asian economies are what they are because they made the right choices. It’s all about making right choices."

"A quick glance over the speech shows that government has not indicated any commitment to eradicating the disease."

"The recent poverty reduction programmes employed by the Khama administration, although noble, such as the much talked about Ipelegeng, would not take this country from the glaring poverty the ordinary Batswana are currently experiencing. Through this programme, Batswana continue to be employed on a rotational basis, obtaining a paltry P360 a month, contrary to the recommendations by the consultants engaged by the ruling party who put the datum poverty line at P900."

"I am of the opinion that the government should be assisted to at least raise the income a bit. If the current Ipelegeng income is viewed on annual basis, these poor Ipelegeng workers would translate to earning a paltry P30 a month."

"I still can’t make sense of why people are so bitter about me joining the BDP. I have received so much criticism since I defected, but that will ever change me. Instead your criticism makes me stronger by the day. Come 2019, some of you will be forced into hiding because I am going to crush you broad day light. I am going to make you regret competing against me."

"These people are in denial, and denial leads to sickness. The BCP will never lead this country even with the right ammunition. Likewise the UDC is a composition of desperate people with false dreams. I have personally worked with Duma Boko and we all know he he is a pompous fellow who will never make a good leader no matter how hard he tries."

"Because of his prudence and his business-like methods, he was a favourite with the popes."

"It is also worth mentioning that my ministry has just been restructured, resulting in changing the name from Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources to Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security. With these new changes, more emphasis is put on green technology and energy security and this is in order to be aligned to international trends."

"I fear the DISS and so does some ministers. Even you as members of the PAC have expressed such fear as per the media reports we have seen recently."

"Mpathi is going back to work, if they have a problem with it they must contact me."

"Not only did I SMS him about the decision to reinstate Mphathi, I also sent him a hard copy of the letter confirming cabinet’s position on the same day."

"We don’t have any. We are not friends. Other than that, he is representing the other shareholder, I know very little about him."

"‘This is the same guy who at times texts me asking for a meeting and now he complains when I use the same mode of communication that was introduced by him. I represent a sovereign state here and this guy must offer me some respect."

"‘I have no personal relations with Mphathi. I don’t know the guy personally but I cannot sit and watch as he is being unfairly dismissed."

"Forbes told me he was firing Mphathi because their relationship had broken irretrievably. He accused him of insubordination even as Mphathi had not expelled the Finance Manager but only suspended her pending a disciplinary hearing."

"Can you believe I first heard of Mphathi’s sacking through an enquiry from a journalist and I laughed it off as a joke."

"I can tell you that all these political leaders in the ruling party and in opposition have been receiving money from Seretse as a matter of routine. And for the greatest part that money went through me as a conduit."

"I was a practicing attorney before I joined politics. I was a director at Choppies. And the properties making all this noise, I acquired them during my time at Choppies."

"When Seretse showed interest in buying my houses in Johannesburg and here I did not hesitate."

"DCEC came to my office and we gave them all the files on BCL liquidation. I had nothing to hide. What I can tell you is that there are big names with vested interests in what is happening at Morupule B. the same applies for solar power and the Tshele fuel storage project. They want me to do their dirty bidding and I am looking the other side."

"We need more specialists in the country because these referrals are siphoning a lot of funds from our coffers. We don’t need to change any policy but we have to review these cases and make sure we have the return on investment."

"Staff welfare is very important; we need to focus on improving our staff welfare. When employees are not happy they will not render good service."

"I am happy because many people are excited that I am back in the ministry."

"So I will make sure that I use this opportunity to boost their attitude to work. Service in hospitals is not poor because we are understaffed, we have enough employees, they just need motivation."

"here is an issue of poor infrastructure, shortage of facilities or poor functioning of boilers, I will ensure there are proper facilities and infrastructure in place."

"it is mainly through innovation and research that new areas of economic growth are identified, exposed and brought to the fore."

"Innovation engenders prosperity, economic growth and new jobs, leading to the absorption of unemployed into the labour market thus making them productive and contributing towards the cycle of building and strengthening the economy."

"I would like to reiterate that industry linked research is one of the elements that contribute to the diversification of the economy by generating new ideas which are invented to create services and products."

"The four common and modifiable risk factors that increase the chances of developing non-communicable diseases are tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and harmful use of alcohol. Let us note that metabolic or biological factors such as high blood pressure or hypertension, overweight or obesity, raised blood cholesterol and raised blood sugar are predictors of non-communicable diseases."

"Early detection has proven to be effective in saving many lives from diseases such as cancer. I therefore encourage all of you to make it a habit to do regular checks and tests, specifically to detect any of these diseases."

"We need to continue with our strategy and make sure that we do not fall back. However we still have a challenge of lifestyle diseases. Lifestyle diseases are those that are encouraged by our way of life, that is what we eat, the rate at which we do our physical activity, awareness or consciousness of our health status."

"“Through this event it is evident that Botswana Ash recognizes the value of wellness of its employees, their families and the community at large. I must say, a healthy and productive employee comes from a good background of a healthy and a well family, and this to a great extent is also influenced by the environment within which they live in."

"We have a tertiary care problem in Botswana. At the moment, we have only three referral hospitals, Nyangabwe and Princess Marina Hospital for general special care and Sbrana in Lobatse, which serves as a psychiatric hospital and the two specific medical tertiary facilities being Princess Marina and Nyangabwe hospitals are faced by congestion."

"We have budgeted for machines like; CT scans and to upgrade theatres, so that operations across all disciplines can take place."

"We are also going to hire specialists that are commensurate with a referral centre, for instance with a minimum basic package of two gynecologists, two surgeons, two anaestheologists, two orthopedic specialists and others much needed, per hospitals."

"We have seen hemorrhage funds for the past years as the Botswana referred patients to South Africa, so we saw the need to increase our hospitals."

"Botswana is a vast country but sparsely populated, so it is important that we have these focal referral facilities."

"Upgrading a hospital is not simply the change of a name, it involves upgrading equipment and making sure that it is right and suitable for the hospital of that nature. This include Human Resource and specialists in the form of support stuff and requisite HR."

"We have partners in the form of countries that we have agreements with, that is Cuba and Mauritius so far, and if we don’t get them in Botswana we are going to recruit them from these countries."

"There are cabinet ministers who want to deal in industrial hemp. To the best of my knowledge I know that they support the legalization of industrial hemp."

"When I leased my farm to them, they told me they were into horticulture. They said they also would like to do production of industrial hemp, but in the course of time. I told them that in as much as they would like to do that, it should be in order and we do the necessary consultations with all relevant stakeholders and ministries because industrial hemp is apparently somewhat associated with Motokwane (marijuana)."

"We did that. There is a committee working on that. I think out of excitement Fresh Standards wanted to experiment with the plant in relation to Botswana’s environment. I did not know they planted it. I trusted that they would stick to my instruction."

"I learnt that they had planted 32 plants, when arriving from Gaborone. My employees had been taken by the police for questioning. One of the officials of the company was also present there."

"In fact, initially Fresh Standards approached the permanent secretary and the Police who in writing, gave them green light. It appears it is only the Minister who can give a waiver and publish it in Government Gazette."

"I know the economic benefits of industrial hemp and will not change my mind. I am prepared to go to jail for that."

"Over the years the Francistown plant has failed to make any significant contribution to the economy but instead it has been draining the government P35 million per annum. Above this there were also expenses of salaries of 195 employees. All these years the plant has been operational, and it was running at a loss. Therefore, it has to be noted that the decision to shut down the Francistown BMC was not done in bad faith because it was practically impossible to operate it. The decision was not to punish anyone but to save the public funds from going down the drain consistently."

"The government cannot build a multi-million facility and just leave it to cease operations permanently. We are currently trying to engage with farmers and different stakeholders on how the plant can be brought back to life and contribute to the economy. We no longer want to experience what has been happening with daily targets of cattle stock. Mind you the throughput of the plant is 380 per day but there were instances when it will go for two months without slaughtering due to failure by farmers to bring cattle."

"We intend to invite expression of interest for disposal of Francistown abattoir."

"We know that some of these partnerships will require us to make some modifications as far as the meat processing and the sale of our beef is concerned because of some of the religions our potential partners are involved with."

"I did not know of my sacking until I was called by one of my daughters who said she had seen reports to that effect on social media. This was around past three (afternoon) and we decided to listen to Radio Botswana and that was confirmed in a spot announcement just after the news bulletin."