UDC women await feedback
Lesedi Mkhutshwa | Friday February 8, 2019 13:12
During the last Botswana National Front Women’s League (BNFWL) congress, which was held in Tonota around November, BNFWL president Dorcas Mothusi said they were going to propose to the UDC central committee to have 10 women parliamentary candidates for the upcoming general elections.
Speaking to Mmegi, BNFWL secretary general, Resego Kgosidintsi said that they wrote a joint letter representing women’s leagues within UDC parties to the National Executive Committee (NEC). UDC partners include the BNF, Botswana Congress Party (BCP) and Botswana Peoples Party (BPP).
She said that they were still awaiting a response from the leadership about their proposal.
She said that they wrote the letter two days after BNFWL congress and sent it through an email to relevant individuals.
When highlighting the contents of the letter, Kgosidintsi said that one of the resolutions from BNFWL post redistribution of the 14 constituencies that belonged to Botswana Movement Democracy (BMD), the BNFWL demanded 30% of the BNF’s share.
She said that it was also resolved that the BNF central committee recall one of the four male members from the UDC NEC and replace him with a woman. She said that the agreement between the women’s leagues from the different parties in the UDC was for each to write their demand letter, which will attribute to the 10 parliamentary seats to be allocated to women in the UDC. BCP Women’s League president, Daisy Bathusi echoed Kgosidintsi’s sentiments.
She said that they were still waiting for the UDC NEC to respond to their letter of December 11, 2018. Bathusi said that the reason for the delay was due to the issues of UDC going before the courts of law. “There is a lot happening within the party and outside. Maybe UDC NEC will get back to us after dealing with contentious issues on their table,” she said.
She remained hopeful that women would be given parliamentary seats within the opposition coalition for the upcoming general elections. When reached for a comment, UDC spokesperson Moeti Mohwasa said that he was not aware of the letter from the women’s leagues in the coalition opposition parties.
Currently, BPP in UDC has a single female parliamentary candidate for the general elections and Botswana Democratic Party has four and Alliance for Progressives has only two.