Women eye BCP presidency by 2020
Botswana Congress Party (BCP) women through the leadership of the party’s women’s wing are preparing themselves to take the leadership of the party come 2020.
BCP Women’ Wing President Daisy Bathusi has revealed that they are training women within the party so that in 2020 they can contest all the seven executive seats of the party including the presidency. The party has since taken a decision to reserve a 30 percent quota of seats in the party’s Central Committee. However during its elective congress held in Kanye last year the party failed to meet the quota.
Bathusi said they are working with Women’s Academy for Africa (WAFA) where she is Secretary General, to train and empower BCP women to take up political leadership roles. She said the two have a long history of relationship. “Our target is that during next year’s regional election as the women’s league at least 75 percent contestants for chairperson seat are women.
The other objective is that during the 2019 general election we would like to have a minimum of 30 percent of women contesting for Parliament and Council seats. In 2020 when it comes to central committee all the seven positions that are normally elected at the congress, we would like to have all those positions from President to have women contenders. This is why we are training our women in political leadership so that when that time comes we have women saying we are ready to take over positions. We want our women to believe in themselves”, she revealed.
She said that it is not good enough for women to be saying things and asking for things which they know they will not get. She called on women to start demanding so that they are considered as equal citizens in the country. Bathusi said the equal representation is not about filling a vacancy that is available.
“There is no vacancy so this means as a woman contender you are going to displace somebody. This is a fact of life and therefore when you displace somebody you have to know that the person is not going to step aside to let you be there. They would fight to be there so you have to also fight to be at that position.”
Speaking during the BCP-WAFA Training of Trainers workshop Bathusi said 11 women league members of different African countries founded WAFA in 2009.
“When you look at it women are a majority worldwide. In most democracies among them Botswana it is questionable to actually look at these countries and consider them democratic in view of the fact that the majority in that particular country would not be equally represented. It is sad in Botswana that the BCP is the only political party concerned about this hence our membership to WAFA. Had other political parties joined we could be far by now.”
Bathusi said training would be done in three phases. The first phase is to identify what is needed to make women be at par with their male counterparts or even do better in political leadership. The second phase is to train trainers who will train other women in the various regions of the country. The third phase expected in April would be dedicated at women at grassroots.
She said WAFA has success stories but BCP as a member has not achieved much. She said during the 2014 general election the BCP fielded more women when compared to Botswana Democratic Party and Umbrella for Democratic Change combined and attributed this feat to the party’s commitment to ensuring that women are active in election.
BCP President Dumelang Saleshando encouraged women in his party to have confidence like men. Saleshando said in politics there is no school of training for someone to be a politician as everyone learns while they are already in politics. Saleshando concurred with the women’s wing that one of the factors holding women back is lack of self-confidence. He said his party is determined to empower all its structures including the women’s league.
He stated that the party has however not done well due to resource constraints. Saleshando explained that the BCP in its various political activities operates under social democracy. He said that social democracy provides for freedom, equality and comradeship.
BCP, he said, is a party determined to grow democracy in the country but “We still have a lot to do. We have in the past taken decisions that people thought would divide the party. We introduced 30 percent quota and this has done wonders for the party. We have to admit however that this was not easy.”