01 Sep 2014

Botswana Congress Party (BCP) has been hailed as the most stable party in the country which Batswana can entrust with their vote.

Launching the prospective parliamentary candidate for Takatokwane constituency, Mr Richard Tametu, in Takatokwane on August 31, Mr Duke Molelekedi, who is a also a parliamentary candidate for Thamaga/Kumakwane constituency, said since its formation, BCP had grown in leaps and bounds to amass a large following across the country.

He said it had also endeared itself to Batswana by playing clean politics and conducting its affairs in a transparent manner. He therefore urged electorates in the Takatokwane constituency to give his party a chance through Mr Tametu, to represent them at parliament as the other parties had failed them.

Another speaker, Mr Nthusang Dibe, who is a parliamentary candidate for Gabane/Mankgodi said under the BCP rule, education will be made one of the top priorities, hence the advocacy for free and compulsory pre-school programme.

He said the reason Botswana had a high volume of foreign skilled personnel was because it lacked proper basic education at the foundation level, and that the current arrangement under the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) where students went to school just a few months before starting standard one was inadequate.

Mr Dibe also said more evidence that the BCP takes education seriously is the advocacy for the use of mother tongue at the basic stages of education, which he said is not tribalism contrary to the BDP’s view.

He said this has been proven through research. Mr Dibe also accused the BDP of failing to emancipate Batswana from poverty despite ruling for many years, saying basic amenities like electricity and water still remain a luxury under the BDP rule.

He said if given a chance to rule, the BCP will improve the people’s lives through better working conditions.For his part, Mr Tametu appealed to the constituents to give him a chance to represent them at parliament, saying some of the priorities during his tenure will be education, water and poverty eradication through better programmes.

He said these are some of the concerns they have been encountering around the constituency during their campaigns. He said unfortunately, there are no new strategies of addressing such challenges in the BDP manifestos, except the already failed programmes.

“BDP has a history of coming up with failing programmes in as far as poverty eradication is concerned. They tried the likes of ALDEP and now it’s ISPAAD, which is also failing,” he said.

He said the BDP is only content with the number of people who apply for poverty eradication programmes, but are not concerned whether those numbers managed to graduate from poverty or not.

He said if voted into power, he together with his council candidates will ensure that all these challenges are voiced at the relevant forums as the BCP manifesto has better poverty eradication programmes.

Mr Tametu also said if voted he will advocate for better working conditions of civil servants, such as proper accommodation.Ends