BCP women speak
Ryder Gabathuse | Friday July 21, 2017 15:55
BCP Women’s League president Daisy Bathusi expressed optimism that the BCP women were rising to take up their positions, as the environment was also conducive within the party.
“We held a Women’s League meeting and we were excited that women are taking up positions of leadership,” said the visibly excited Bathusi. She described the BCP as the first opposition party to have a female opposition MP in Parliament and the first female party chairperson.
She counted a number of firsts associated with her party including the recent appointment of Tebogo Molefe as the first female BCP Youth League president. Molefe took over from Tumiso Rakgare who is currently in the employ of the Botswana Public Employees Union (BOPEU).
This development according to Bathusi is key and it is showing that if the environment is encouraging, women can assert themselves and take their male counterparts head-on and compete on an equal basis for party positions.
Bathusi told the BCP’s ninth national conference last Sunday that one of the things that her committee has done was to speak to some women advocates in South Africa who had volunteered to help them with their case in case the government was going to maintain its rigidity on gender protocols.
“Now, the gender protocol has been signed by the government to give female politicians equal opportunities, albeit the President Ian Khama-led government has signed a rather watered down version of the gender protocol.”
Bathusi was worried that if the party in government cannot have regard for women’s interests, as the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) emerged from its 37th elective congress in Tonota with a negligible 13.33% of women in its male-dominated newly-elected Central Committee. ”Women who are in the majority in our political parties have been disenfranchised even in terms of allocation of constituencies as the political game continues to be a ‘gentleman’s club’. “ To her, there are signs that in some quarters, there was no commitment for women empowerment. However, she was convinced that there was light at the end of the tunnel in the BCP. She challenged the BCP to lead from the front and resolve that in the 2019 general elections, the party will make conditions even more conducive for women politicians to partake.
Briefly addressing the conference, Molefe said it was uncommon for women to be in the lead at the current rate across the BCP organs.
She promised the BCP that the youth leadership was not going to disappoint the party, but they will continue holding the government of President Khama accountable.
“We are going to continue with our endeavours to educate fellow young people to remain resolute and focused on the political game,” said a youthful Molefe, thanking the party leadership for creating an enabling environment for them to continue performing their functions.