Ookeditse tipped for Nata-Gweta
Staff Writer | Thursday December 22, 2016 15:00
Mmegi is reliably informed Ookeditse, who is the director of youth in the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development has signalled an intention to run in the primaries. Ookeditse is a former deputy chairperson of the BDP communications and international relations sub-committee and was stationed at Tsholetsa House as a consultant during the 2014 general elections campaign. He is also considered one of the country’s most influential youth leaders.
Contacted for comment, Ookeditse was cagey, but said coming from the constituency, he felt the “pain of the people”.
“I am a boy from Mosetse and love to serve my country and people. While I’ll always avail myself to help the area develop, I am currently a civil servant with a contract to run. I have business here to see through and I am very excited about it,” Ookeditse said.
Sources close to him however are adamant that the former political analyst is being lined up to remove the current MP Polson Majaga who is seen as “out of touch with the youth and the modern world”.
“The last time around it was said that Majaga himself said he would talk to (Minister) Thapelo Olopeng and (Vice President) Mokgweetsi Masisi about the constituency,” a BDP councillor in Nata-Gweta said.
Ookeditse, who is also a convener of the Botswana Jobs Summit, is said to be highly regarded in the constituency and does a variety of community work.
Nata-Gweta remains one of the poorest constituencies in the country with very little economic activity except for mines at Sowa and Mowana. The area suffers acute shortages of water and has benefited very little from tourism even though it is right in the corridor to Maun and Kasane.