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Botswana: Nagafela At It Again
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Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
17 March 2008
Posted to the web 17 March 2008
Bame Piet
The MP for Letlhakeng West, Filbert Nagafela, is at it again. After announcing that he does not sing the national anthem three years ago, he said on Friday that he does not close his eyes during prayers in Parliament.
He is disappointed that after 42 years of independence, Botswana is still clinging to the practices she got from the British colonisers. He told Monitor that the Parliamentary prayer should be changed with immediate effect and the Speaker of the National Assembly and his deputy should not wear the white wig. "They look clumsy in those head gears," he charged.
He contends that the headgear was made to belittle the black man and to brainwash him to believe that only white people can hold such important positions. Nagafela vowed that he will challenge the practice in the forthcoming review of the Standing Orders of the House. "I am definitely going to challenge this because the prayer also belittles our religious beliefs. We can do it in a different way where members could pray as individuals or one MP praying for the House. The parliamentary prayer no longer has a meaning. It has diminished to a recitation," he said. He said that he visited the South African Parliament in Cape Town recently and the Speaker did not wear the 'funny headgear'.
However, Clerk of the National Assembly, Ernest Mpofu, said that change could be effected by people, and if any MP feels that there is need for it, the matter can be looked into. He said that people have different views on the issue of attire as some feel it distinguishes the Speaker and the deputy from ordinary people, while others may feel there is need to change.
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Another institution where some have felt there should be a change in clothing is the judiciary.
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