BNF, BDP youth leagues shun TK's meet
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Friday February 22, 2019 14:44
The meeting was meant to discuss the political atmosphere in the country.
However, the two youth committees claimed that the meeting was too short notice and they were not told the agenda ahead of it.
Only three political youth leagues attended, including the Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD), Alliance for Progressives (AP) and Botswana Congress Party (BCP).
“The purpose of the meeting is to engage bodies representing the youth across all sectors, so as to understand the challenges they are faced with and to understand the area that we could improve on, and adapt or change accordingly and how,” Khama said.
“As the youth are the future leaders of this country, I believe it is important that we engage them on matters that only affect their future that they will be dealing with, such an example is climate change, just to mention one.”
“We have to be alive to the fact that whatever decisions we make today will have a direct bearing on the youth tomorrow and the challenge here is for current leaders and officials to be up to date with the latest trends, and best practices.”
He said he believes that dialogue with youth should be held earlier on in the process, and that the importance of the youth should not be underestimated.
BNF youth league president, Velem Heii said he learnt about the meeting very late when the minister’s secretary called him a day before the meeting.
“I was not happy with the manner in which I received the invitation, again there was no agenda. The person who called seemed clueless about the meeting. I think next time they should invite us formally without giving us short notices and the agenda must be attached to the invitation,” Heii said.
For their part, the BDP youth wing secretary Ronald Kgathi said they had requested the minister to brief them before the said meeting, as it is normally procedure.
“We got the invitation late, a day before the meeting. But we will have a meeting with him as the BDP youth leaders privately. There are certain things that we cannot discuss or say in front of other parties,” Kgathi said.