Women marginalised by patriarchal system - BNFWL President
Botswana National Front Women’s League ( BNFWL) President Dr. Bonang Nkoane says if all women from all political parties, irrespective of party colours, speak with one voice they need to demand special dispensation for women in the upcoming 2024 general election.
She said they have to demand quotas for women so that they see many women standing for elections. According to Dr. Nkoane they need to demand special funding for women.
“When I say this, it is not because we need special treatment, but it is a fact world- wide that women are marginalised by the patriarchal system that has encroached our lives since time immemorial.
“At the BNF we have recently managed to get our central committee to resolve to commit to at least 30 percent quota for women and other marginalised groups for the 2024 elections and have special funding for them. It is a good start, it all starts with political will,” said the BNFWL President, who called for unity within opposition parties. She explained that regime change in Botswana is long overdue. “We owe it to our children and our children’s children,” she said.
Dr. Nkoane who was speaking during the Botswana Congress Party Women’s League ( BCPWL) Conference in Mahalapye said opposition parties should put aside their differences and focus on the main purpose of their calling, emancipation of their people from economic slavery, from the claws of the merciless Botswana Democratic Party ( BDP).
“Let us stop this egoistic war. Men seem to have failed us in that regard, isn’t it time that as women we stand together and bring these men together? Even our slogans can testify to this. So, when we speak of a new Botswana, this is the new Botswana we talk about, an all- inclusive Botswana where Batswana are equal, where Batswana equally enjoy the natural resources of this country, where no Motswana sleeps on a hungry stomach, where a Motswana has a roof over their head and most importantly for us as women, a Botswana where there is gender justice,” Dr. Nkoane said.
She told the conference that as auxiliary bodies of their movements exist solely to mobilise and empower their people, in their case, women. Further adding that there cannot exist economic emancipation of people if women are left behind.
She said women are the cornerstone of every political movement. According to Dr Nkoane they mobilise, they campaign, they fundraise and there is nothing that a woman does not do in the political struggle. “Inflation is at its all- time high at 14.8 percent, unemployment stands at 26 percent. I am told for youth it is even higher. Our people are paid peanuts, yet government has raised taxes countless time in this year alone. Looting of government coffers, taxpayers’ money, your money, by the BDP elites continues.
“Corruption is rampant to the extent that for the first time our democracy is under serious threat. Every country that has been led by tyrants started like this, where one man centres all power to himself. “No country can hope to move forward if its people, its women and children are trapped in endless cycles of abject poverty, when they do not have the health care they need, they die because there are no vital medicines for their high blood pressure, diabetes,” the BNFWL leader said.
She wondered why Botswana, where more than 55 percent of the population are women, more than 50 percent of voters are women, the country has a paltry four percent women in parliament, none from opposition, and 11 percent in Council?
Does it make sense that the minority, men, make decisions for the majority who are women? she asked. She told the conference that it is about time that women must take themselves seriously.