Tlokweng residents already decided

The gloves are off in Tlokweng, and the parliamentary by-election race to replace fallen giant Same Bathobakae has just got nastier.
There was shock last week when former Specially Elected MP Shirley Segokgo announced her candidacy as an Independent Candidate to battle the already known adversaries Elijah Katse of the ruling party and Masego Segokgo of the main opposition in Parliament.

The mood in the village is telling, with many proffering a vindictive tone towards the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP); some showing sympathy towards the opposition Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) and a few bothering even to talk about the independent candidate.

On the footsteps of President Ian Khama’s walkabouts in Tlokweng this past Saturday, The Midweek Sun entered the homesteads as well, sat under trees and umbrellas with roadside vendors and picked just about anyone on the pathways to size the mood going into the May 13 poll date.

Many were unflattering about the ruling party, saying they have had a long spell since independence, where they were led by ruling party MPs such as Lesego Motsumi and Geoffrey Oteng, adding however that the BDP leaders had done very little to improve their lives. Tlokweng, they say, has had a tussle for land with many ministers who always take them lightly by making false promises. “Maybe if we try the opposition the BDP will work hard to please us and get us the land we have long cried for,” Mmoloki Moeng (52) of Nkaikela says, adding that he still has to stay in his parents’ home because he cannot get a plot in his home village.

“It’s no secret, I am voting for the UDC just as I did in 2014 for the first time after having voted in the ruling party before then,” he said, dismissing talk about the independent candidate as a non-issue for him.

Mma Moseki – she identifies herself as only that and nothing more – says until President Khama comes to Batlokwa to apologise for his delay in issuing the writ of election, she will not treat the BDP with any seriousness.

“They take us for granted. For all this time, who was supposed to represent us when money issues were discussed in parliament? If they took us seriously like in Goodhope-Mabule where they brought Molale, we would have had a new MP by the time the budget speech was debated. As for Shirley, she is BDP and I’m not even thinking about her candidacy,” she said. Emang Seitshiro, found selling sweet reed and watermelons by the roadside near Tlokweng Police Station, says he has always been a Botswana National Front (BNF) follower and activist. He can only advise Masego Segokgo on what to fight for while in parliament because “the man is going to Parliament, Katse cannot win.

“Segokgo needs to go push our land issues and help improve our education system because he is an intelligent educator. He can offer better advice than Katse whose skill is only on finances," he said.

Seitshiro is also unhappy that President Khama took his time before allowing elections to take place. “We don’t know anything about the P10million constituency fund other MPs explained to their people because we were denied the chance to have a representative. We take this delayed writ personal and we will punish Rre Kgama for it,” he said. Boitshoko Kgaswane, found in a homestead across Ingwae Bar, says she is an unhappy youth having been promised manna and never getting anywhere with the touted youth grants and poverty eradication programmes.

“We have given up on these false promises. They make it difficult for us to fill the forms and end up disadvantaged despite having brilliant business ideas. Again, here in our area, we have complained of the water that flood our homes whenever it rains because of poor drainage. “They keep coming here to promise, even the president Ian Khama once came to Tlokweng and was told about this.

He promised us help, but to date there is nothing,” Kgaswane told The Midweek Sun, adding that the delay in calling for elections has also angered them as they felt undermined. Another youth, Thatayaone Rampoka says he will be voting for the BDP because he feels it is a more reliable party that has governance experience than the UDC. “We need jobs and the fast way to it is trusting a party that is already in power. An opposition party will not do anything for now to help us,” he said.

Onneile Olefile also says he is going for the BDP’s Katse because as a ruling party MP, it will be easy for his party to listen to him when he speaks for them, unlike an opposition party MP. As a youth, he believes the country’s future is in the BDP which has many programmes meant for them.  

John Bonang says he is voting for opposition, and says the youth should stand up for political revolution. “It pains to hear young people saying they vote the BDP. What do they hope to gain with no prospects of owning land in their home village?

“We are made to suffer because of our proximity to the city. The BDP controls the economy but voting their MPs has never helped us, better try the opposition.  Their house-to-house strategy of bringing us Khama who frustrated us with the writ,won’t sway our resolve,” he said.