BCP's Furniture targets Tati East
Innocent Selatlhwa | Tuesday August 16, 2022 06:00
Already, he is working on the ground at Tati East constituency to recruit more people to ‘the lime revolution’.
Furniture was the previous BCP Youth League president and aspires to represent the party in the Tati East constituency at the 2024 General Election.
Currently, the BCP is a member of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) coalition but the affiliates could be heading for a divorce.
About his future political aspirations, Furniture said: “Currently, I am mobilising the Tati East constituency where I aspire to be the area Member of Parliament. I believe {I} am the right person to represent the constituency. I grew up there and I understand the constituency very well.”
Furniture was born and raised in Siviya, a village in the North East District and did his primary and junior schooling in the Tati East constituency and later attended Ledumang Senior Secondary School in Gaborone.
“I worked as a police officer before I became an entrepreneur. I hold a Diploma in Security Management and I have a string of businesses across the country ranging from security services, cleaning services, construction, and accommodation services,” he explained his track record.
His political consciousness began in 2009 when he joined the BCP. He voted for BCP in the 2009 General Election at Gaborone North where he is a resident.
He became a ward chairperson for Ledumang and secretary for Gaborone North and the Gaborone Region. In 2015 he contested as the Youth League chairperson under the lobby led by Tumiso Rakgare and lost with only four votes to the party’s current deputy secretary-general, Tebogo Molefe.
“In 2019, I contested again for the Youth League president position and won. I had an opportunity to serve on the executive committee of the BCP. I have never joined any political party in my life apart from BCP. As the BCPYL president, I achieved a lot during the 2019 General Election where I was leading the campaign nationally and coordinating Tati East constituency candidates to make sure we win all wards but we only managed to win one in Tati Siding,” he recalled.
Under the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), he said, the majority of the people are struggling to be allocated land for residence, business and farming.
He also cited a lack of employment amongst the youth population, which makes them settle for Ipelegeng, a government social employment initiative, as a way to survive in a shrinking economy.
“I think am the right person because I am still young, vibrant and energetic, and passionate about changing the lives of our people for the better and introducing entrepreneurship to our people so that they can be self-reliant rather than depend on government social grants which are hand to mouth,” he said.
He is unfazed by the fact that his party last contested elections at Tati East in 2014 and was second only to the ruling party.
“Our numbers were not bad because we were number two after the BDP and managed to win one ward in the constituency. We believe that we contributed a lot in 2019 to have the presence of the opposition in the area and currently I am recruiting more people to join the BCP in large numbers,” Furniture said.
“I promise them the best representation ever in consultation with the local authority to better the lives of our people who are in poverty not by choice but by lack of support from the government.”
The constituency which has always been a BDP stronghold is currently in the hands of legislator, Douglas Letsholathebe.
The Education and Skills Development minister took over from Samson Guma Moyo who left the BDP and is likely to contest under the UDC on behalf of Botswana Patriotic Front.