Opposition youth leagues slam political cyber hooliganism
Executing watchdog role
Social media has of late been abuzz as members of the Botswana Congress Party (BCP), Botswana People’s Party (BPP) and Botswana National Front (BNF), especially the youth, attacked each other with reckless abandon much to the chagrin of some of the party followers.
The three parties are affiliates of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) and for weeks now, followers of especially BNF and BCP have been at each other’s throats, even accusing their respective leaders of varied forms of transgressions.
At first the cyber hooliganism was the result of a debate on social media between BCP and BNF activists on whether or not it was time for the UDC to hold an elective congress or whether the status quo should obtain until the parties are dissolved into a single party.
Currently, each contracting party is given a certain portfolio to fill.
This past week the bone of contention has been around the legal fees that have to be paid by the UDC after they lost their court bid to nullify the 2019 election results. Common talk is that the BNF leadership is only taking care of their own candidates within the umbrella, something that prompted the BCP followers to instruct their leaders to also take care of their own. The situation was made this week when BCP President Dumelang Saleshando wrote on facebook, rallying the BCP faithfuls to come together in rescuing their Gaborone Central Parliamentary candidate Dr Mpho Pheko from the financial conundrum she finds herself in after her property was attached and her car sold off.
BNF followers came out with guns blazing, saying Saleshando was divisive. In his defence, their BCP counterparts returned fire, saying the BNF leader Duma Boko had started it all by also throwing his weight behind the BNF parliamentary candidates whose property was also attached. It is an endless war of words that continues to date, and recently, the youth leagues of opposition parties have come out to condemn the bickering.
“We are not part of that at the moment as our party has only recently joined the opposition cooperation talks.
“We however observed the incident with utmost sadness and disappointment. As AP Youth League we intend to facilitate peace among and between the contracting partners. “There is need for unity within all the UDC structures including the various youth leagues,” Gaone Majere, the Alliance for Progressives Youth League president, said. “It is our hope that there will be no repeat of what happened,” Majere said, noting that his league will facilitate a meeting of all opposition party youth leagues. Majere was however noncommittal on her and the APYL’s views about the elective congress.
“We do have a position which we however cannot reveal for now. We will leave everything to our delegation at the talks”, she explained. For Onneile Segwai, the president of the Botswana Patriotic Front YL, the way forward is for the UDC to start robust political education to empower their youth on the imperatives of opposition unity.
“Instead of bickering and allowing self-interested elders to use them, the youth should understand their role. As youth, it is also important that we reject the retiring elders to use us to achieve their personal agendas,” he counselled.
He added that political parties should refrain from taking their differences to the public.
“The voter cannot trust us to run the country if they think we are not able to run our parties,” he said, adding that they must be seen to be tolerant.
Asked what the position of the BPFYL is on the contentious issue of an elective UDC congress, Segwai became guarded. “As BPF, we do not have a position since our party has just entered the talks. I think it is important for partners to be guided by the UDC constitution,” concluded Segwai.
“Anybody who talks about an elective congress must first deal with the constitution because nowhere does the UDC constitution talk about an elective congress,” said the Botswana People’s Party YL leader, Ntwaetsile. He said that he had voiced his disapproval to the nasty exchange on social media.
“We must learn to debate and when we disagree, must do that soberly minus violent emotions,” advised Ntwaetsile. “Engaging in such fights may convince the voter that we are not ready to lead. It may also be understood by the voter that it would have been a grave mistake had they voted the UDC into power in 2019.” For BCPYL, an elective congress is the way to go - the UDC must be democratised by way of holding an elective congress. “That is what we are unequivocally advocating for. This is overdue,” said Tlhabologo Furniture who is also calling for a total merger of the cooperating parties into a single entity.
“As BCPYL, we intend to continue lobbying our leadership to advocate for a UDC congress now to avoid a situation where, as we approach 2024, the general elections are used as an excuse to defer the congress indefinitely once again,” said Furniture.
He is not happy with the recent showdown between the BCP and BNF on social media.
“There is too much indiscipline in our organisations. While we call upon the youth to be patient, we also call upon the mother bodies to address issues as quickly as possible instead of allowing them to remain hanging for too long,” appealed the BCPYL leader. The BNF has got no youth league having disbanded it last year.
Lack of administrative capacity and limited financial resources have weakened the watchdog role of civil society. This has rendered them ineffective stakeholders in the implementation of the national and global development frameworks for improved accountable, effective and sustainable development.
Both Botswana Council of Non-Governmental Organisations (BOCONGO) and Botswana Association of Local Authorities (BALA) admit that they are powerless and often fail to hold those in power accountable for the good of citizens.
They accept that they have not maximised their comparative advantage and potentials to undertake their watchdog role. This has been the situation for some time now and has recently become worse as a result of the global Covid-19 pandemic that has deprived them of financial support from corporates who now have other funding priorities. BOCONGO, the national mother body that is aimed at coordinating the work of nongovernmental organisations in Botswana has now secured P2.4 million from the European Union (EU) to help in undertaking a project that they are implementing with Botswana Association of Local Authorities (BALA). Dubbed, Strengthening the Capacity of Botswana Civil Society to play an effective Watchdog role for Enhanced Accountability and Sustainable Development’, the project is expected to take 24 months to complete. Executive Director of BOCONGO, Monametsi Sokwe says even though the two organisations have complementary mandates they have been failing to work well together due to numerous technical and administrative capacity challenges. The project will strengthen structures of both organisations to enable them to work together more effectively. Their mandates create a partnership that ensures that they play a strong watchdog role in the implementation of national and global development frameworks for improved accountable, effective and sustainable development “Both organisations are critical stakeholders in the implementation of NDP11, monitoring national budget for improved, accountability, effective and sustainable development outcomes”, Sokwe says. Executive Secretary of BALA, Steve Pheko on the other hand adds that key words like accountability and watchdog should be driving their mandates, however, they have been failing to deliver quality service to citizens. The project will also mainstream cross-cutting issues by adopting a Human Rights Approach (HRBA) to the design and implementation of all activities. It will be mainly guided by principles of good governance marked by gender equality, democracy, children’s rights, indigenous peoples and environmental sustainability which are core to the watchdog role of civil society. Among others, the project is expected to enhance coordination of CSOs for effective advocacy, enhanced strategies for CSO engagement in governance and development issues, enhanced transparency in the development and implementation of the National Budget.
Atotal number of 7955 people with severe and profound disabilities – 3935 males and 4020 females - were registered to receive Disability Cash Transfer by November 2020 compared to 8602 in 2019.
The Disability Cash Transfer is provided only for people with severe and profound disability, most of who require round the clock care.
It caters mostly for care giving as those who are economically disadvantaged are also provided with a monthly food basket and the associated cash allowance.
Coordinator at the Disability Office in the Office of the President, Thomas Motingwa attributes the decrease in number to loss of life or failure of beneficiaries to come forth to verify that they are alive as this is done every six months. Beneficiaries receive P450 per month.
Latest statistics from November 2020 also indicate that there are 4312 permanent destitute, 287 temporary destitute, 516 children in need of care, 134 people in community home based care, 586 needy students, 133 orphans and vulnerable children and 157 people in need of psychosocial support.
According to the Statistics Botswana’s Demographic Survey of 2017, out of a population of just over two million people in Botswana, 90 945 individuals reported disabilities, with more females with disabilities than males. Motingwa admits though that the Disability Office is still grappling with challenges in disability database and currently depends on Councils. His office is currently working with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to develop a comprehensive
Disability Database that will provide data on various disabilities variables such as age, gender, disability type and social protection services accessed. The Disability community in Botswana however, believes that there is more that could be done to fast track the process for the country to ultimately sign and ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) to ensure that the rights of disabled people are promoted and protected. They decry challenges including lack of accessible environment in public places, less or no economic participation of persons with disabilities, violence abuse and discrimination of persons with disabilities, lack of stakeholder involvement and collaboration in disability issues and lack of employment opportunities for people with disabilities, among others.
Motingwa says Botswana intends to accede to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with
Disabilities and ratify it however, this is a process which requires consultation with stakeholders to put in place the necessary measures to be able to respond adequately to the requirement of the convention later during implementation. The National Disability Framework comprising of the Revised National Disability Policy, National Disability Strategy and the Disability Law, which have been completed and circulated to sectors is awaiting submis
sion to cabinet. The development of these initiatives is a precursor to the signing of the CRPD by Botswana.
According to Motingwa, the Disability Office works closely with the Botswana Council for the Disabled (BCD) and continues to support the organisations registered under the BCD financially through various sectors, on a quarterly basis for operational costs including remuneration of staff.