Meet Somolekae, the "agent of change"

Dr Gloria Somolekae, a politics and public administration expert, has been roped into the political cauldron of partisan politics. The 52-year-old woman this week became a Specially Elected Member of Parliament, leaving her academic sanctum for politics where she will not only have the opportunity to practice what she spent a long time teaching, but to fend off political salvos fired at her and her party, the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP).

"I know that I am going into rough terrain," she says. "Politics can be bad or good. It depends on how you, the people, play it out. I am an optimist." Those who know her, especially from the academic field, are unanimous that she is the best choice for the nomination to Parliament.