19 Jun 2022

Ms Peggy Serame is the Botswana Democratic Party's (BDP) Women’s Wing chairperson after garnering 370 votes against Ms Sethukani Gabanakgosi’s 117 and Ms Gosego Mmolawa who got 13 votes at the party’s national elective congress over the weekend. 

The vice chairperson position was won by Ms Veronica Lesole with 339 votes while Ms Angelina Sengalo and Ms Julia Miranda got 66 and 64 votes respectively. Ms Neo Maruapula and Ms Orefitlhetse Masire won the secretary general and treasurer positions. 

They will be deputised by Ms Tinny Dinoko and Ms Talita Monnakgotla respectively. The committee, which also has 12 additional members, is expected to serve for two years. 

In an interview after the elections, Ms Serame thanked fellow democrats for showing confidence in her leadership abilities by voting for her in large numbers. 

She said the congress made history since it was the first time the women’s wings top posts had three candidates. She said it showed growth and affirmed the BDP as a democratic party. 

On her roadmap, Ms Serame said her committee would prioritise women empowerment through sensitisation and ensuring existing programmes were beneficial to them.

 “We intend to reach out to women from the grassroots level and find out if existing programmes work for them. 

We do realise that women empowerment is important because women have challenges that lead to abuse,” she said. 

She added they would also cater for the girl child by collaborating with other stakeholders to ensure that females were empowered from a young age. 

Ms Serame said her committee intended to work hard to ensure that more women contested for Parliament positions. 

For his part, a member of the BDP electoral board, Mr Alec Seametso said the election process went well and that all candidates accepted the results. 

He attributed this to the transparency that they ensured during elections, adding that he was optimistic that the elective congress enhanced unity among BDP members. ends