|
“Politicians generally have sweet tongues and can easily convince people to vote for them. The next thing you will never know what happened as they would hibernate and disappear altogether,” said Kesego Moabi. She said she always confronted politicians who come to her parents’ house in Block-One soliciting for votes. “I have always asked them what difference they will make in my life once I vote for them as politics these days is all about getting a job and not quality representation,” said the 27-year-old Moabi, who is jobless. She told Mmegi she had just returned from a job-hunting spree in town. “Everyday I line up at the labour office with the hope of getting a job, without success. I have been hopelessly sitting home and doing nothing. The only time I got a job, albeit temporarily, was when I was employed to pack goods on the shelves of a newly opened business and here I am. The rest have been ‘piece jobs’”. Moabi has two children, a son and a daughter. She would have to sit down and consider carefully if playing an active part in politics is a worthwhile venture. “I can’t just go and vote this time around as politician seems not to take youth issues seriously”.
Rapula Molebatsi, 26 is not convinced that politicians make their plans with youth issues in mind. He took a swipe at politicians for failing to empower the youth as the future of the country. He lamented that the youth are vulnerable to many social ills like unemployment, HIV/AIDS, alcohol abuse. He pointed out that politicians are failing to address these issues. While the education system was not helping the situation as school dropouts continued to swell the ranks of the unemployed. “Unskilled as we are, we also cannot access government financial assistance to set up and run our own businesses”. Molebatsi currently resides at his parents’ home in Area-W location. He completed his secondary education in 1996 and since then he has been involved in voluntary work around town. He told Mmegi he has been meeting his former schoolmates around, loitering in the streets without jobs. “This is a sad picture and we need to correct it as the youth and tell the politicians to change their tactics for the better”.
For 22-year-old Jabu Makhiya, it is alarming that politicians remain mum about issues affecting the youth. “Politicians do not talk much about youth related issues in the city. You can hardly hear politicians raising these issues and yet they expect us to blindly vote for them,” he said. He added that when politicians raise youth issues they do so in passing. Makhiya lost in the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) council primaries for Somerset-East Extension. He said politicians from across the political divide are not serious about the youth and their problems yet they expect the youth to vote for them. “We cannot participate in politics while our returns are almost nil in the end. Unless the system considers us to be stakeholders, then we would leave participation to those who benefit from the system,” he said.
|
