Tshireletso calls women to active politics
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Friday March 9, 2018 09:00
Speaking at the Botswana SADC Gender Protocol Summit 2018 hosted by Gender Links Botswana today, Tshireletso said even though the country has made great strides on the promotion of gender equality and fight against women and children abuse, it was still left behind on the political sphere.
Tshireletso pointed out that the numbers of women continued declining in Cabinet positions. She said even though she felt there was a lot that needed to be done regarding that matter, she believed that women could bring great ideas that could bring positive impact in the country.
“As we know, we have a few women sitting in Parliament. Even though we have intelligent and beautiful women who can make an impact on the political arena, it seems like they are mostly reluctant to do so. There are many men at our Parliament compared to a few women. We can’t blame our male counterparts on this because we are to be blamed. The other problem that we see is that women do not support each other,” she said.
She further urged women to support each other and eliminate the misconception that men are better politicians than women.
Tshireletso urged women to contest for her position in her constituency. She announced that she wouldn’t be taking part in next year’s general elections.
“I have done my part. I brought many changes in my constituency that includes building tarred roads in my constituency. I have done a lot for my people and it is high time I embark on other opportunities. I would like to see a woman taking over my constituency and continuing with the great work I did. I stood bold amongst men and I expect my female successor to follow suit,” she said proudly.
Tshireletso’s retirement next year will be worsening Botswana’s standing in women representation in the National Assembly. The latest Global Gender Gap Index 2017 released towards the end of last year ranked Botswana 122 out of 144 countries, owing to its overly male dominated Parliament. Botswana currently has only five female MPs in a 63-seat Parliament.
During her term, Tshireletso tried to activate constitutional amendment to increase the number of specially elected MPs from four to eight of which four seats would be reserved for women. Unfortunately, her motion did not succeed as her male counterparts said it would not bring any significant change in increasing the number of women in Parliament.