Shortage of land, Mokgware�s priority
Chippa Legodimo | Thursday October 30, 2014 16:46
Mokgware stood against Lesedi Mmusi and Mzambia Dibe of Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) and Botswana Congress Party (BCP) respectively in the Gabane-Mmankgodi constituency.
Mokgware won the hotly contested constituency by 7,155 votes beating BDP’s Mmusi who got 6,833 and BCP’s Dibe who was voted by 3,056 people.
“I made my road map clear during my campaign and my voters were well aware of this when they voted but top of my list is the land issue.
“The people in this area need land. It is important to put pressure on government to address this problem urgently. The youth would like to have their own property but those dreams have been dashed by shortage of land.
“Of course there are other issues like lack of infrastructure as you can see there are no roads in Gabane,” Mokgware said.
The former commander of ground forces at the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) paid tribute to his voters for believing in him and promised that he would ensure his voice makes a difference in parliament. It was a hot contest between him and Mmusi, which rendered the counting process a knife-edge experience for both the candidates and their supporters.
When the counting started just after 1am on Saturday, it looked like it would be a stroll in the park for Mokgware who raced ahead with over 400 votes in the first three hours of counting.
But after sunrise BDP came back strongly, benefiting from ballot boxes from Mmankgodi, which had the highest number of BDP votes.
By 3pm when the last few boxes from Gabane wards were opened, the scales were tipped in Mokgware’s favour.
UDC took the lead again, and this time for good hence the 322 difference between the two contesters at the end of counting. Of the 17,227 votes cast, only 183 were rendered spoilt. Over 20,000 people had registered to vote in the constituency.
“I was worried at some stage but I was comforted by the fact that I had done well in my campaign.
“I had expected around 8,000 to vote for me, but one has to acknowledge that there are many factors that determined the votes.
“I realised that some people were voting because of their relationship with a certain candidate not gauging what that person can offer,” Mokgware told Mmegi.
Mokgware paid tribute to “his mentors”, former BDP councillor, Eric Sethebe and Gaborone’s former deputy mayor Ezekiel Dube for guiding him well.
“These are the men who showed me the light and as you can see they stood by me for two days of counting. None of them took a bath during all that time and they gave me hope when things did not look good for me,” he said. Mmusi had only few words to say after his loss.
“This is a process we have chosen, a process of democracy and I accept the result and thank those who voted for me.
“I also congratulate the winner because the voters have made their voice clear,” he said. Dibe and his supporters were long gone by the time the results were announced.