Lesego Kwambala- a community mobiliser of note

President Ian Khama has famously likened Botswana politicians to frogs which hibernate at the end of the rainy season only to resurface at the onset of the next rainy season. The politicians had attracted Khama’s uncomplimentary review on account of their tendency, according to him, to disappear after the election only to materialise just before the next election to seek votes.

The president will be relieved to note that Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) councillor for Itekeng ward in Francistown, Lesego Kwambala, a degree holder in Sociology from the University of Botswana (UB), is an exception. The councillor, who worked for a while as a Monitoring and Evaluation Officer for the Tonota Sub-Council maintains that, although politics does not offer competitive salaries, he could not resist the allure of service to the community. “I joined politics because of my passion to serve. Sociology deals with people and development. This triggered in me the desire for involvement in people’s lives,” said Kwambala who has also worked as a Council Youth Officer in Francistown before joining the National Blood Transfusion Services as a blood donor recruiter.

“The difference between being an officer and a political leader is that as an officer, you serve as an implementer while as a councillor, I am a policy maker,” stated the councillor when it was put to him that the jobs he did also gave him ample opportunity to be a servant of the people. He also added that, as a youth, he was presenting himself as a model on the ability of young people to lead. “Politics should not be a retirement home hence my joining it now. My aim is to succeed in my mandate and hence prove that as youth, we do have what it takes to lead,” said the politician. Bordered by the Tati River to the west and south, the railway line to the east and the New Bridge road to the north, Itekeng ward is the land of contradictions. It evokes feelings of hope and despair. Hope because it hosts two secondary schools, two primary schools, a tertiary institution, several wholesalers, the largest industrial area in Francistown, a Botswana Defence Force Camp, one of the few 24-hour- service clinics, one of the busiest and one of the oldest shopping complexes in town.

It is however, the negatives such as high unemployment rates, juvenile delinquency, rampant littering and other forms of environmental pollution that have propelled Kwambala to lead from the front. The Itekeng ward has been associated with high crime rates including prostitution. Soon after winning the 2014 general election last year, 29 - year - old Kwambala, has been hard at work conceiving the Itekeng Vision 2018. According to its blueprint, this community mobilisation instrument intends to bring about social change and community empowerment to the Itekeng community through the realisation of, according to its five pillars, “a community of persons who take the lead in their own development, people motivated and inspired to learn, know and be informed, a united people inspired to help others, positive and focussed beings and a healthy, well, and a safe community.”

Among the main areas of focus for the development pillar will be the establishment of the Itekeng Market Area and a deliberate effort at skills development. The vision also seeks to stimulate social change by sponsoring arts festivals, the establishment of information centres as well as, among other things, facilitate regular school debates. Borrowing from the national Vision 2016, the ward Vision will seek to transform the community into a compassionate people by, among other things, leading an advocacy effort for the disabled. Creative pastime activities, peer education programmes as well as clean up campaigns will also be facilitated.

The annual Kwambala Cup forms part of the several activities that form the ward vision.The Itekeng Vision, which will be run by a Vision Council, will have a website. Both the area Member of Parliament and councillor will be ex-officio members of the Council. Vision annual awards will be held. There will be vision pillars ambassadors who will be the faces of the community mobilisation effort. To enhance transparency, according to Kwambala, the Itekeng Ward Vision will be subjected to a public review annually. It remains to be seen whether the leadership of Kwambala, whose first name means good fortune, will galvanise the community into a self-reliant people for that is what the name Itekeng denotes.