Meswele said he is going for the chairmanship to enhance the youths’ participation in party activities and ensure that their wishes are brought to the fore.“I also intend to unleash the potential of the youth for their betterment. You can develop the future leadership of the party by allowing them to take more prominent roles in the party,” he said.
He said he wanted to work closely with the youth to find innovative ways of combating poverty, unemployment and other ills. “
One way of doing this is to encourage the youth to venture into self-employment projects. After the elections and once we have been declared winners, we will sit down as a committee and come up with a strategic plan based on all ills of the youth.” One of the main issues that he will tackle is HIV/AIDS, which he said continues to decimate the youth. “As a matter of concern, HIV/AIDS is one of the main issues that we will tackle. We will sit down and come up with working strategies with a view to helping the youth,” he asserted.
Meswele has served the BDP in various capacities as a member of a number of committees. Recently, he sat in the BDP technical committee that handled the Bulela Ditswe (new primary elections system) appeals. He declined to say whether he was going to win and left his fate in the hands of the congress. “Ultimately, it is the youth who will decide and they must be given an opportunity to do so,” he said. If elected, he said he would ensure that the BDP youth strategic plan is achieved without hitches. Meswele is a training and development manager for Air Botswana.
Mzwinila, on the other hand, is appealing to the BDP youth to consider him for the party youth chairmanship because he is suitable for the job. “Well, you will notice that at constituency level, I am the regional youth chairman of the Bobirwa, Mmadinare and Selibe-Phikwe region, and I am familiar with youth issues”.
If elected, he would mobilise the youth for political education and participation, as well as enlisting them in the fight against HIV/AIDS and problems that directly affect the them such as road safety and youth economic empowerment. He said he would prepare the youth to assume positions of responsibility in society by inculcating a culture of discipline, sense of organisation, personal ideals and values, as well as a a sense of self-esteem.
“The other issue includes articulating to the youth that it is part of our responsibility to tackle issues such as the so-called passion killings, alcohol abuse and rowdy behaviour,” he said.
He added that he would strengthen the party youth structures at all levels in order to ensure that the youth wing continues to provide leadership by bringing foot soldiers to the BDP. He said the party youth are preparing themselves adequately to be leaders. “However, strong leadership by example is required. In addition, generally speaking, I believe that most of our youths are disciplined and committed to the purpose of national development and, of course, there are those in the minority, who at times may need more direction and assistance.” He is confident of becoming the BDP youth chairman going by the compromise list that merges candidates from his side and those of his rival, Meswele. “We will present our suggestions to the congress and the congress will make a decision in the end. However, in the event that elections are pushed by a majority of the delegates, we will not retaliate by fielding our full team. We will let the elections to proceed as amicably and peacefully as possible,” Mzwinila said.
He admitted that in actual sense, this means letting the other group’s members to run unopposed. “We will strongly consider this option,” he added.
The 29-year-old Mzwinila is a psychologist and development economist in private practice. He is a former member of the Botswana Defence Force.
