Congratulations and condemnation to Botswana government!
Michael Dingake | Tuesday June 21, 2016 15:29
The gist of the message is summed up in the boxed highlighted summary: “Botswana has over recent years made great strides towards gender equality with several government policies and initiatives in place to promote women in business, to help them with networking recognition in the workplace and guidance in career development.”
No Motswana can deny the inspirational achievement of the two ladies pictured and recognised in the article; they have projected the innate quality of women on the public screen; the irrepressible struggle, the woman talent by Batswana women in particular, to draw level with their male counterparts in open competition, to show that whatever men can do they can do and do better! I wish to congratulate the two models, at the same time extend my compliments to many more of their ‘tribe’ yet to be blazoned in newspaper headlines. You’re the light illuminating the way ahead. We know you represent many of the rest of your oppressed “tribe”, who anxiously wait to be recognised publicly and many more who will never be acknowledged because they’ll never have the opportunity since ‘many a flower (in Botswana) is born to blush unseen and waste its sweetness on the desert air!’ Emang, Basadi! The time is now. Let me also differ with the writer who seems to imply, what the two women have achieved, is for themselves. My view is, what they have done, and continue to do, they’ll do for the image of Batswana women, as shining models for future generations. The objective at the moment is to awaken the rulers from their deep age-old somnolence, to review hopefully, their policy of neglect of the critical resource of the nation, women!
Perhaps the rulers also deserve a modicum of congratulations for the tentative belated indirect steps that may one day lead to the anticipated women empowerment so that they play their God-given role in national development. In our male-dominated world, we delude ourselves to believe we are doing better than the rags of society who still prohibit their womenfolk the ‘luxury’ of driving motor vehicles. Appointing a woman to a central bank CEO position, obviously would have taken a bit of haggling and debate to convince the verkramptes in the male sector that it was the right thing to do. To the male die-hards the experiment of promoting women to CEO positions, in the public sector, and the private sector is an unwelcome change. Regina Sikalesele-Vaka’s quality, of course demonstrates the entrepreneurial talent and leadership possessed by women in general and Batswana women in particular. Her exploits must be noticed by corporations to the effect that they exclude women from CEO positions at their own peril.
For the grudging concessions, the public sector and the private sector make, congratulations are in order. For failure to go the whole hog to grant women equality with men, condemnation is right. It’s wrong for government in particular, to be dragging its feet on its empowerment programme, when it has supported conventions, declarations, protocols and resolutions at umpteen international forums; are we taking advantage of the fact that our women aren’t as militant as the Tahrir freedom square Egyptian women? ‘#I shall not forget,’ movement is a warning, not to be pooh-poohed. It’s self-delusion to imagine promotion of a few female permanent secretaries and departmental directors is empower-ment. Women empowerment means granting them the right to sit on policy-making bodies and in particular to enjoy adequate representation in the legislature. Parliament is where political power resides, it’s where policies and laws are formulated. It’s there where we expect to find women full house, not tumbling numbers.
The 11th Parliament has only five women. Four are members of the ruling party, one belongs to the opposition. One of the four in the ruling party is specially elected. Five women MPs in a House of 62 members! Of the four BDP MPs, three are cabinet Ministers in a cabinet of 17 members; the fourth woman is an assistant Minister. Either the Executive is trying to pull wool over the eyes of the public to create an impression that the Executive thinks highly of women by giving them difficult Ministerial portfolios – Education, Health and International Relations or is it an attempt to bamboozle the public by creating an impression that all women are cabinet material?
The urgent thing is to bring more women into Parliament. If the executive doesn’t know how, Rwanda is not far. Hit by genocide that claimed 8 000-000 lives 22 years back, she has in a blink of an eye managed to have 53% of women MPs!