UDC Women Better Step Up To The Plate
Chakalisa Dube | Monday November 26, 2018 15:18
The words were echoed by the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) women’s league president, Daisy Bathusi over the weekend when giving a key-note address at the Botswana National Front Women’s League conference in Tonota.
She said should women be excluded from the 2019 line-up, to many it would mean that the UDC’s commitment to gender equality and women empowerment is gravely lacking. Currently, only the Botswana People’s Party (BPP) in the UDC has a single female parliamentary candidate for the 2019 general elections. The ruling party has four candidates while the Alliance for Progressives has two.
She added that should the UDC end up with an all-male line-up, it will not only be an indictment on the UDC men and the leadership, but also on women in the opposition coalition. Bathusi stated that women in the UDC should relentlessly push for the party to move swiftly and give some constituencies to women to contest at the 2019 general elections.
Should the proposal be considered it might cause divisions in the already fragile UDC because some men who have already won the primaries may be reluctant to pave way for their female counterparts.
According to Bathusi, unless political parties seriously commit and implement measures for ensuring the equal representation of women and men as candidates it would simply not happen.
“It is a well known fact that most if not all countries that have made positive strides in gender equality and the advancement of women have adopted and implemented affirmative action policies such as gender quotas. A zero women UDC 2019 line-up is a no-go area ladies. Down with it down,” she said. The BCP firebrand maintained that the affirmative action policy is still very much needed in Botswana because women are capable, but are far from reaching a level where they can compete with men in various key political leadership positions owing to the level of various injustices they have been exposed to for decades.
“Men have been in the political sphere for a very long time hence they are well capacitated in various respects to contest the elections than women. Affirmative action is one of the key initiatives that can help drum up the confidence of women and help level the playing field,” she said, adding that the UDC should have sacrificed some of the constituencies to women during the negotiations (for allocation of constituencies amongst parties).
According to her, constituencies previously held by women (at the 2014) general elections should have been allocated to women regardless of the party they were given to if the UDC were committed to gender equality.
The BCP women’s league president also dismissed the stereotype that women often fail to score high when bidding for key positions of leadership because of the ‘pull her down syndrome’.
“For many months now, the propensity of human beings to pull each other down has played out right before our eyes between (former) president Ian Khama and the current President Mokgweetsi Masisi,” she said.
“No one has labelled the developments as ‘pull him down syndrome’. If it were women it would have been labelled as such so many times. Pull him down syndrome is an issue that applies to all humans not only women.” The BNF women’s league president, Dorcus Mothusi said they would table a proposal to the UDC to have 10 women parliamentary candidates for the next general elections.
She said they would table their proposal through the BNF leadership.
“We know that parties within the UDC have already gone through primaries, but it is feasible to accommodate women candidates for the next general elections. The UDC can work things out to accommodate women candidates,” she said.