Masisi brothers clash

LERATO MALEKE
Correspondent | Thursday March 21, 2013 00:00

 

There was drama in Parliament yesterday when Francistown West MP Tshelang Masisi played a starring role in helping legislators to force his brother, the Minister of Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Mokgweetsi Masisi to eat humble pie. At one time, the Speaker, Margaret Nasha had to shout at an excited Tshelang to sit down after he urged MPs to bulldoze an attempt by his brother to explain why the Office of the President (OP) should be given P195 million to acquire more office space. 'There are no bulldozers in the House,' Nasha told Tshelang.

Lobatse MP Nehemiah Modubule joined the fray against the minister arguing that his presentation is the same as the previous one rejected by MPs. 'The minister changed the figures slightly, other than those to do with the funds,' he stated. Modubule said he 'smelt a rat' and that he was afraid the minister had already paid money and only wanted Parliament to rectify his mistake.He said the minister should have made an undertaking to reduce the amount. He argued that initially the minister was not clear on what he wanted to do with the P195 million and 'now comes today and talk of office space at Orapa House'.

When defending himself, Mokgweetsi said the draft budget estimates for the OP were developed on the assumption that the mid-term review would have been completed. He said he consulted with the Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Kenneth Matambo, who agreed to the request. However, Matambo stood up to say he was surprised with what his colleague was saying. Facing a hostile Parliament, Mokgweetsi was forced to withdraw his request and issue an apology to MPs. He said 'I humbly apologise for what I did and therefore stamp down the whole sum'. He explained that he would back the request after the mid term review, more so that the MPs argued that it was not in the plan.

The House recently rejected the minister's proposed budget for his ministry arguing that in his budget, he was not initially clear or did not specifically state anything about the P195 million that he requested for office space. MPs said the minister was not clear whether he wanted P195 million for purchasing or renting offices. Yesterday, he said the money is needed for purchasing additional office space for the ministry.  He said that the ministry currently has several departments which are renting out offices from the private market. He said they need offices for the Departments of National Disaster Management, Government Communication and Information Services, National Strategy Office, Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime, which recently accommodated the Commonwealth Africa Anti-Corruption Centre. 'The situation of office space is very crucial for the ministry,' he lamented but except for Master Goya, who supported him, the rest of the MPs had no sympathy for him.