The policy seeks to empower women, youth, people living with disability and those based in very rural areas to contest for leadership positions for the party and at a national level. For example, 30% of leadership positions in key structures of the party are allocated to women. Women, youth, people living with disability and those from very rural areas also pay a significantly reduced fee to take part in the BCP primaries. The policy also affords affirmative action target groups, greater campaign resources than other candidates at the general election.
This week Saleshando told Mmegi that based on recent trends, it is not wide off the mark to suggest that the policy has not produced the needed results, most notably in terms of encouraging more women to challenge for parliamentary positions. The BCP leader partly referenced the recent party primaries held in nine constituencies across the country. Only one woman contested the parliamentary primaries for Palapye and lost. A hypothetical analysis also shows that few women participated at the primaries at a government level. The second round of the BCP primaries will be held in December 2023 and suggestions are that few women are likely to contest given the current trend. “I have to admit that the results of the affirmative action policy are far from satisfactory. It is, however, reflective of the national trend. Women are less keen to take leadership positions. When it comes to parliamentary positions, it becomes apparent,” Saleshando told Mmegi.
He explained that the party has realised that despite its affirmative action policy, women still face many challenges that hinder them from vying for leadership positions. “One of the key challenges is finance. There is serious discrepancy in pay among men and women. Women are still comparatively paid less than their male counterparts,” said Saleshando. He added that the other challenge is that women still place greater emphasis on family sustenance than men. “Men are more than willing to sacrifice family resources for politics. We are also still a patriarchal society. More needs to be done to get women to participate in leadership positions,” he said. Saleshando further stated: “Maybe as a party we should think of allocating 50% of leadership positions across all our key structures to women, from the current proportion of 30%. That would build their confidence, although it would not directly talk about addressing women contesting for parliamentary positions.” The introduction of political funding can also encourage women to contest for parliamentary positions according to the BCP president.
On a positive note, Saleshando highlighted that through affirmative action, the party has been able to get more members from very remote and under resourced areas to contest the primaries, especially at local government level. Previously, the BCP handpicked competent women, the youth and the people living with disability to contest the general election as well as give them preference when they seek key positions on the party's central committee, but the move was scrapped. The number of women who challenge for political positions in Botswana continues to wane. For example, after the 2014 General Election, female representation in politics stood at 8.7%. At the elections, out of the 192 parliamentary aspirants, 17 were women. In 2019, only 11 out of 210 parliamentary candidates were women, representing five percent of the total. The opposition has also struggled to send women to Parliament for decades.
In January 2014, Dr Habaudi Hobona became the first woman opposition Member of Parliament. Hobona went to Parliament through a by-election. She was followed by the late Same Bathobakae in 2014, who was among the winners at the general election. Since then, the opposition has not sent women representatives to Parliament.
