SA communist urges vigilance on BNF youth

EPHRAIM KEORENG
Staff Writer | Wednesday May 19, 2010 00:00

Addressing the BNF youth at their congress over the weekend in Kanye, Young Communist League (YCL) provincial secretary in the North West, Mike Mokhutshwane, said the BNF youth suggested that they mobilise society against government on the re-introduction of school fees, unemployment, HIV/AIDS prevalence and a host of other problems that are a common concern in Botswana. 'You should ensure that you make the government ungovernable. You should analyse the society of Botswana and programmes to address the needs of young Batswana,' he said.

Mokhutshwane said the youth should champion the BNF policies and run with them across the country, especially where the mother body (BNF) has no reach.

He said the BNF youth league should be located within local communities, especially in villages, so as to strategically advance the policies of the party and mobilise people to support it. The YCL leader said after the general elections, the BNFYL should have started mobilising support and preparing for the next elections. This, he said, could easily be achieved by rallying people around issues that are central to their lives.

Mokhutshwane added that the BNF should have taken advantage of the split within the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) and lured the Barata-Phathi into the BNF fold.

'It was not necessary for the BMD (Botswana Movement for Democracy) to be formed. If the BNF had positioned itself as an alternative to the BDP government, it would have taken these BMD people. As the youth, you should treat this as an opportunity to defy and change the political landscape of Botswana,' he said.

The young communist leader also advised the BNF to engage the labour movement and work together to unseat the BDP from power.  As highlighted by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels who said trade unions are inherently reactionary, the young communist indicated that the focus of workers all over is in the traditional workplace and that in order to transform them into a revolutionary force, there is need for a revolutionary guard.  'It happened in South Africa. COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions) was not as progressively coherent as it is now. It took a lot of years. The BNF should continuously engage the workers so that you can speak in one voice as progressives,' he said. Meanwhile, Moshe Noga, the secretary general of BLLAWU (Botswana Land Board and Local Authorities Workers Union) lamented that the BNF has abdicated its role of being a mass action movement. He said the reason a lot of organisations like the BNF are replete with succession disputes is because they do not groom young people for leadership.

'There should be a programme to orientate people, especially newcomers, in what being a BNF member entails. You will find someone is called a BNF member, yet their political outlook is based on BDP ideology,' said Noga.  Speaking at the same congress, BNF president Otsweletse Moupo reminded the party's youth that they are an auxiliary of the main body and should desist from going around saying they are independent. He also said that though he accepts that the youth should have fun, they should also wake up to issues affecting them and tackle them head-on.

Regarding government programmes on youth development such as the Young Farmers Fund, Moupo said the youth should desist from dismissing them as impracticable projects but instead research into them to establish their successes and failures.

'Politics of joking and ridiculing people belongs to the past. We need to redefine ourselves. When some comrades left us to form the BCP (Botswana Congress Party), they said we were stuck in the past. We now have the BMD, a sophisticated lot who are trying to be better than the BCP and the BDP. So it's a challenge to us to up our game,' said Moupo.