Magang guns for BDP top post
Proposes reforms in Secretariat and Bulela Ditswe
In this candid interview Phakalane businessman and Botswana Democratic Party ( BDP) secretary general hopeful Lesang Magang shares his vision about the future of his beloved ruling party. He tells Botswana Guardian that for the BDP to be unstoppable they need to soberly address a number of fundamental questions about how the party has been doing things
Botswana Guardian: What rekindled your love for active politics after you have been missing in action for so many years?
Magang: I believe I have never stopped being an active member of the party. In the past few years I chose to play supporting roles in our ward structures.
In the run up to the 2019 elections I was roped into the Manifesto Champions Adhoc Committee which saw me working with multiple Member of Parliament candidates as we prepared them for various television and radio debates.
I also got the honour of joining a team of three that supported President Mokgweetsi Masisi to prepare for his landmark BTV debate. His passion around the issues drove me to seriously consider offering myself for a more substantive role at national level.
BG: What prompted you to run for the secretary general position of the BDP?
Magang: I strongly believe the party is as strong as its secretariat, the entire secretariat ecosystem. I am an avid institutionalist. I believe in building organisational systems that work. And in this case a political organisation that is selfreinforcing from the bottom upwards.
For us to be unstoppable come 2024 we need to soberly address a number of fundamental questions about how we have been doing things. Analysing the problem and driving the solutions is my first and second nature.
BG: Since you have covered so many regions, what is it that is worrying the democrats about their party? Why are they worried that the party is dying at cells, wards, branches and regions?
Magang: Our structures are still alive. They need to be strengthened to be able to deliver for the party. The fundamental worry of democrats at all levels is our ability to deliver a fair and efficient Bulela Ditswe season. The grey areas and several operational deficiencies create lasting issues that stifle our ability to unite and campaign for candidates that win to represent us in general elections.
Democrats at all levels have very valid ideas on how we can fix these issues. I believe my own ideas that I have shared with them through my # FEAL strategy speak directly to their thoughts and hopes.
BG: The BDP is dying a slow death in the Central region; do you have a solution to address this problem?
Magang: Gammangwato will forever be a BDP stronghold. We indeed have challenges there.
In the next month I will communicate with the leadership about my ideas on how we can pursue a pragmatic course of events to ensure a more energised Central region. I am not ready to share such with the media at this point.
BG: Let us talk about your # FEAL strategy, can you explain it please?
Magang: The pronounciation of acronym is yes to feel what Batswana and card- carrying members are saying. Fairness as I travelled over 11, 000 kilometres around Botswana last year and counting cut across many things.
But Bulela Ditswe was the number one topic democrats analysed and wanted kgola disana meetings. # Feal is about the fairness in making changes, a reset in making Bulela Ditswe fairer to all.
Empowerment as a topic was not only about giving knowledge about party structures rights and obligations. But to my discovery most activists, foot soldiers and party membership has not economically been empowered. This cuts across board in access into the economy and even down to knowledge of targeted programmes.
Accessibility in short is to take the secretariat out to the structures and one way is the use of technology as we digitise our economy. This would mean better and faster communicating, debating of topics to know what our 14 regions are doing or needing.
Loyalty is not just literally that but it’s about how our structures from the youth wings, women’s wings, GS26 etal in the 57 branches progress in the party. The training programmes or party school to target new proposed sub committees respond to a new world order.
BG: It looks like you are running a highly disciplined campaign dominated by ideas or agenda based, what is the feedback from party members?
Magang: The feedback has been overwhelming. I have been very humbled by how the ideas we are putting on the table resonate directly with the current concerns of Democrats and how they aspire to see their party evolve. As I said before, these are however wholly dependent on the new secretariat ecosystem that we need to build.
BG: President Masisi recently talked about ‘ Reset’ and you have ‘# FEAL’ manifesto that you have been selling to the democrats for over a year now. How are these intertwined?
Magang: Reset agenda is about among other things, rearranging our priorities and making sure our implementation mechanisms have a closer monitoring and evaluation to ensure there is value for every Pula we spend towards development.
We have 36 months to the next election in October 2024 and as a former member of Manifesto Champions I understand the pressure of a delivery matrix which the President has highlighted in five areas.
# FEAL has timelines in everything proposed as well as those that are subject to Central Committee approval. It is also a Reset as we have to approach 2024 differently. That is all that # FEAL is proposing.
BG: What are the aspirations of the democrats and their hopes and expectations on the party leadership?
Magang: The aspirations of democrats are captured like those of Batswana as a whole in the foreword of President Masisi in our 2019 manifesto.
The expectation of democrats is for our leadership to deliver on those with an eagle like focus even with the challenges of the corona virus pandemic. Most of all democrats want to be in that journey and participate in shaping policies that will help transform our economy. The founding document of our party constitution says these things.
BG: In several Facebook posts you talked about Bulela Ditswe imperfections, what do you think should be done to reform the system?
Magang: As I mentioned the devil is in the detail and that will only be shared with the leadership when that time comes. For a start our data management system is part of the need for a reset.
The timing of when voters’ rolls are presented like with the national Independent Electoral Commission should give all interested parties at least 30 days to confirm or have changes made openly.
BG: Lastly, what are your views about citizen economic empowerment? Do you think Batswana are becoming xenophobic on social media platforms when they discuss this issue?
Magang: Naturally social media has played its part in fanning the flames. Our BDP manifesto had stated that citizens’ participation in the economy will be a priority.
We look forward to our winter Parliament to table this Bill. Government being the largest factor in spending in our economy naturally has to take the lead in this. For a start, civil servants directly doing business with their employer naturally puts them at an advantage thereby making it harder for other Batswana.
# FEAL is about fairness, empowerment, access and loyalty.
For our current generation and for the future we need our own formula that works for us as a country. For our stability into the future it needs to start being felt as history has taught us that we have to empower.