BNF youth condemn police brutality
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Tuesday February 14, 2017 16:22
When addressing the media on Friday, BNFYL secretary general Osenotse Mabote said the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) regime cannot stop the students’ revolution even if it resorted to police brutality or intimidation of the students. He said that they fully supported tertiary students in their quest for justice and social welfare. “It is with utmost shame to report to the world that June 16 has resurrected here in Botswana. The apartheid police are no longer white people, but blacks wearing red uniform beneath their blue uniform and they are brutalising and sjamboking innocent tertiary students at the command of President Ian Khama’s BDP-led Government. As the struggle continues, the BNFYL fully supports all tertiary students in their quest for justice and social welfare,” he said.
Mabote further said the BNF constitution mandated them to fully support students movements in Article F that stated that the party must promote and strengthen mass democratic organisations such as trade Unions, women’s and student organisations and others. He added that their party has a social democratic policy called education and training that emphasised the importance of education.
“We have uncovered that UB students did everything in the book to negotiate with the administration and DTEF where they pleaded with them to be given their allowances on time, but the Government was too busy allocating chunks of billions to the Ministry of Defence and Justice while the Ministry of Tertiary Education was tossed P4.5 billion on the starving faces of desperate students,” he said. Mabote also expressed concern over poor living conditions for the students, adding that retake students and female students were sidelined.
He said the BNFYL and the civil society advised the Government to subsidise the sanitary pads so that they could be affordable to all women regardless of class and their political orientation. He also stated that the Government refused to give UB money last year, but instead it proposed to buy weapons worth P22 billion. Mabote further stated that UB was paying the ultimate price of sabotage hence in that case its students were affected the most.
“BDP is ruthless beyond the devil. This is clearly demonstrated by the party Secretary General (Botsalo Ntuane) who cries for a national flag while the youth are brutalised by the police on stifling and rumbling stomachs,” he said.
He also condemned Ntuane for his press statement where he said the students must be expelled from the University or face jail term for burning the national flag. Meanwhile, the High Court issued an order Friday granting UB students access into the university to get all the personal effects they may want to collect from their rooms.