BCP cushions women to participate in the 2024 elections
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The Botswana Congress Party (BCP)’s has reiterated its affirmative action for women, youth, elders, and Remote Areas Dwellers (RAD) who wish to run for primary elections in the BCP.
If they run in the BCP primary elections in 2024, the disadvantaged group will only be obliged to pay half of the election registration expenses.
Speaking during a media briefing this week, BCP leader Dumelang Saleshando revealed that as a party, they have resolved to ensure that the elderly, disabled and youth who want to stand for primary election should pay only 50 percent of the attendant party fee.
In an interview with WeekendPost, Dr Mpho Pheko elaborated further, explaining that the Affirmative Action policy was adopted by the BCP as one of the means of removing barriers to women, youth and other marginalized communities meaningful participation in politics within the party. Over and above the provision for external elections, BCP has a mandatory 30 percent quota for all structures in the party, such all structures should have 30 percent women representation.
The Global Gender Gap Index, a report published by the World Economic Forum annually, has indicated that Botswana is among countries that fares badly when it comes to representation of women in legislative bodies. Botswana ranked 127 in female MPs representation out of 146 countries in the world.
“Recent studies have revealed that resource constraints remain the key of the major barriers to women contestants, a situation is compounded by the fact that women in Botswana not only dominate the unemployment pool, but are also more concentrated in the lower scale of the poverty datum line. This situation was further worsened by COVID-19, which according to statistics took more men than women, and mostly breadwinners against the prevailing backdrop of the fact that most households in Botswana are female led. To this effect, the BCP saw the need to increase the affirmative action quota from 25% to 50%, as a means of encouraging more women to participate,” said Pheko.
Pheko further said as a party they have had the advantage of seeing the positive impacts of affirmative action in the run-up to the 2014 elections when they had fielded more women parliamentary candidates than any other party in Botswana.
“Regrettably, our gains were drastically reduced in 2019 as most of our potential women candidates were disenfranchised by coalition constituency allocations,” Pheko emphasized. She said though some may view affirmative action as discriminatory, at the BCP they consider it a necessary concept to mitigate against the adverse impacts of patriarchy and cultural socialisation which has disenfranchised and discriminated against women over the years.
Pheko said they believe affirmative action is a necessary measure to not only reverse the adverse situation but also to level the playing field as we venture towards an inclusive and democratic BCP led government
Furthermore, Saleshando said they have started a process of developing their manifesto. He said they will consult different stakeholders regarding the development of a manifesto, which will include the issues of human rights and issues that seek to ensure that the large economy benefits citizens. He further noted that they want to propose a high-income economy that works for all. Another he noted was a safe route from the informal sector to the formal sector and building a culture of good governance.
“A decision has been made, 2024 we are contesting as BCP, it is a decision made by the highest BCP making body which is the conference and because of that, we are starting to implement it,” Saleshando noted.
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The Fields Mall dragged to court over GCET Show
A legal battle between Interlink Communications (Proprietary) Limited and the newly built Fields Mall over the much anticipated technology show schedules for the 22nd of this month has begun.
Davies Tamali , the owner of Interlink Communication has filed papers before High Court Judge Dr Godfrey Radijeng where he seek an urgent interdiction of the Gaborone Consumer Electronics & Technology (GCET) show pending the final determination of the ownership of intellectual property rights over the event and damages based on misappropriation of intellectual property rights.
According to Tamali, GCET is the brainchild which was originally called “Tech Expo Botswana” as he ideated, conceptualised, organised and delivered the event details on behalf of Interlink Communications to the management of the fields Mall.
His papers further insist that the concept was introduced to the respondents through a proposal document sent by emails and Whatsapp on Monday the 8th of May 2023 as a request for venue usage and pricing.
According to Tamali, the respondents unlawfully and maliciously got hold of his proposal, took it unbeknown to him and presented themselves to the public, world at large to be the owners and original creators of the event.
“It is worth noting that the fields mall was actually the second venue center to be approached by the Applicants to host the event, with the first being Fairgrounds Holdings. The fact that the event can be hosted by other venues is a clear indication that the applicant is the owner of the event.”
Tamali pled with court to treat the application with urgency because by the time the action proceedings are heard in the ordinary course, the respondents would have finished planning his event and sharing his ideas even with other parties.
“On the basis of the conduct of the respondent, the matter is so urgent it cannot proceed in accordance with the normal Court processes given the times, as to so do will defeat the very purpose which is to preserve the status quo and to ensure that my rights are protected through a judicial process.”
CASE BACKGROUND
According to Tamali, the issue began after Davies had received the quotation costing from Fairgrounds Mall, which in essence he thought were beyond his pricing budget.
“This led to a request for quotation phone call on or about 7 May 2023 between the Tamali and Ayanda an employee of the fields who works under the supervision of the Nazly Dawood.”
Davies advised Ayanda that he was looking for a suitable venue to host a technology expo to be called “Tech Expo Botswana” which led to Ayanda asking what the expo was about. Following which Ayanda then advised that she would speak to her boss, Nazly about the event.
Tamali reveals that on the 8th May 2023, he followed up with Ayanda and she advised that she had not yet managed to speak to her boss.
He says that on the 15th of May 2023, he made another follow up and he was advised that Nazly wanted more details about the event so that she would be better placed to make a determination and final decision thereafter.
According to court papers, on the 17th of May 2023, Tamali followed up again and Ayanda advised that she had not yet managed to speak to her boss since last update, however she asked Tamali to call her later and when he called she advised that Nazly had asked for a detailed proposal so they can determine how to assist.
“It is common cause that on 17 May 2023 following the phone call with Ayanda, Tamali submitted a written proposal via email to the following email addresses; info@thefields.co.bw and nazla@thefields.co.bw using a link to Ayanda and Nazly requesting a quotation to use the Fields Mall as a venue for Tech Expo Botswana”
It is further revealed that on the 19th of May 2023, Tamali followed up with Ayanda and the Nazly. He was told that they were still discussing the issue hence they would get back to him.
“On 23 May 2023, Tamali sent a copy of the information pack to Ayanda on whatsapp. He then followed up with a phone call, upon which he was dismayed to hear Ayanda stated that they were also hosting a similar event called “Gaborone Consumer Electronics & Technology Show 2023” so they could not host his event.”
According to Ayanda, the started organizing the same event in May during the Gaborone Motor show.
“On or about 22 or 23 May 2023, I received a call from an individual who identified himself as Christian (The first respondent), who I now know to be the forefront of the current impeding GCET. He called me under the false pretense of being under the employ of fairgrounds holdings requesting information of how much I had paid for the fairgrounds venue”. Wrote Tamali.
He says that he advised him that the venue has not being paid yet, Christian then proceeded to ask why he advertised for an event that he has not yet paid for.
“I then explained to Christian that I had mentioned to his colleague Kesego that I would be advertising the event so that I get a general feel of how receptive the community was to such an event. I then asked Christian if he had spoken to Kesego, I must note that his demenour changed as he showed that he did not know Kesego at all. At that point I realised that Christian was not under the employ of Fairgrounds holding.”
Tamali reveals that after the phone call, he google searched and found that there was a show titled GCET Show 2023, and discovered that it was advertised on facebook using the date and his venue.