Leaders Speak As Bathobakae Laid To Rest
Innocent Selatlhwa | Monday December 5, 2016 15:36
The Botswana Federation of Public Sector Unions (BOFEPUSU) labour secretary expressed delight at the rare opportunity to address Cabinet.
“As you have already heard, Bathobakae was a great woman. I will not talk about her, but take this opportunity to address ministers and Members of Parliament on issues that concern us,” he said.
“I am happy to see these people who we hardly see, the leaders and ministers. We sent you as Batswana to run our country, create jobs for our youth as well as look after our resources, not to be corrupt and mess things up,” he said.
Motshwarakgole also slammed the Vice President, Mokgweetsi Masisi for neglecting his responsibilities.
“The Vice President’s job description is not to recruit members for his party. People are jobless. He has to create jobs and let parties employ individuals who can do the member recruitments,” he said.
Motshwarakgole then turned his guns on Eric Molale, telling him they cannot be cutting jobs at BCL Mine when there are no jobs already. He called on the legislators to reopen the BCL Mine.
Botswana People’s Party (BPP) vice president Mbaakanyi Lenyatso also slammed government for not supporting women in politics.
“Bathobakae was an exceptional woman. She defied the odds where the government of the day makes it almost impossible for women especially in the opposition,” he said. He said the situation was worsened by lack of jobs. He slammed the government for not listening to people who have the right ideas of doing things.
Minister of Defence, Justice and Security, Shaw Kgathi described his late friend as a humble big-hearted woman who was tolerant to all. But he, in turn chided the opposition for politicising everything. “People are politicising everything now including funerals and churches that is not a good thing. If we politicise churches, we are creating huge problems for ourselves. Everything will fall apart,” he warned.
For his part, President of Botswana Congress Party, Dumelang Saleshando described Bathobakae as a clear example that politics is not always a dirty game. “Throughout campaigns and debates, she kept calm and espected her opponents. I would like to urge all those who will wish to replace her to campaign in a manner in which she would be proud. Let’s all keep it clean,” he said.
Tlokweng’s Kgosi Puso Gaborone described Bathobakae as a loyal servant.
“We have lost a great leader. She has always been with us through our legal battles on the land quota system and other issues. She was always present during our activities and she always spoke loud about issues affecting Batlokwa,” he said.
Bathobakae who passed on last week was laid to rest at her home in Tlokweng on Saturday. Amongst those who attended the funeral were ministers, MPs, Parliament Speakership, presidents (except the President, Ian Khama) and members of all political parties.