PRIME TARGET
Gabane-Mmankgodi parliamentary candidate for Botswana Cogress Party (BCP) in the 2024 elections, who is currently Councillor for Gabane North East, Ofentse Mareme, is targeting the scalp of Kweneng land board chairperson, Kgang Kgang.
During his launch in Gabane this past weekend, Mareme said if voted into power, his first assignment will be making sure that Kgang packs and goes.
Mareme said land issues have always been the biggest headache and the problem is one man, the Kweneng Land Board chairman.
“My biggest problem is the chairman of the Kweneng land board, after I assume office; I will deal with him so that by the end of the month, he is out of office. I always hear people saying they are going to court, unbeknownst that the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) led government is the one making laws, meaning they will lose.
“When I arrive, it is pack and go for Kgang. I urge voters to be wide awake, any person who comes to you asking that they be voted into power, you should ask them how they feel about Kgang, if they have no answers, show them the exit door,” Mareme said.
Mareme has been a councillor for 15 years and sometimes wonders if some Members of Parliament (MPs) are serious about representing their people. Land issues are what pushed him into politics.
He recalled that years back, when realising that issues of land would soon become a problem in their area, he went around advising that they be given plot certificates for security purposes.
In the year 2013, they partnered with Mogoditshane Sub land board and an agreement was reached to take their fields and compensate them with residential plots elsewhere.
Today that arrangement has been reversed and everything has turned chaotic, people have been scammed while others are being told that they will not get the promised plots.
“At land board offices, they now call me 'Compensation' because I was always with our people talking about these issues, fighting for their rights. I have written a letter to the president of the Land Tribunal asking that he looks into these issues because the people of Mmankgodi-Gabane are disgruntled,” he said.
He added that the long envisioned dual carriage-way road from Pula Spar to Mmankgodi that passes through Gabane remains a pie in the sky. For many years, they were promised that construction would commence but it has been one story after another until today.
Mareme said meanwhile, many Batswana are perishing on the same road because it is in a very bad state, it will be his homework to dig and understand why the construction of the road is not happening since 2017 when they were told money had been reserved for it.
The parliamentary candidate defined himself as a thorn in the flesh for the ruling party, and is always asking uncomfortable questions during council meetings to expose the BDP rot. This is why he envisions that once an MP, he will hold all permanent secretaries accountable, he will call them for a meeting so that they explain why things remain as they are in the constituency - why there is acute shortage of water and medicines in clinics among other things.
BCP Vice President Taolo Lucas added that President Mokgweetsi Masisi's-led government has failed the nation. “Khama o ne a palelwa, yo o worse,” he said, explaining that all Masisi ever does is fly out. He labelled him a part-time president because he is never home to address bread and butter-issues affecting Batswana.
He urged the people of Gabane-Mmankgodi to vote for Mareme saying the incumbent MP, Kagiso Mmusi, who is also Minister of Defence and Security, was a weakling, “He cannot lead, he should be led,” Lucas said.