A candidate in the race for Gaborone central, Gomolemo Motswaledi, recently angered UB students when he revealed that he hasn’t had enough time to take a stand on how President Khama has threatened to handle striking students.
“I haven’t had time to analyze the decision taken by His Honour, the President so I don’t know what brought the decision about,” said Motswaledi. “I wasn’t part of his thinking at the time.”
The President released a statement that addressed issues of striking students, saying that people would be blacklisted from working in the public sector and some will have their scholarships revoked.
Students accused Motswaledi of being reluctant to take a stand because he was afraid of how his party leadership would react to which he replied, “My word is my conviction, whether you agree or disagree doesn’t matter.”
Some students say they are in doubt of whether he would be able to protect their interests as it seems he is reluctant to go against the decision taken by his party.
They also probed him with questions as to why he opted to stand for candidacy in Gaborone Central while he had expressed interest in standing in Serowe.
“Well, I am sure I am not the first person in the world to want to do something and then end up doing something else,” said Motswaledi.
A debate had been organized by the school’s debate masters in order for students to get acquainted with the development ideas proposed by the three candidates within the Gaborone Central race for the elections in October.
On the same note, in terms of policy layouts and public speaking for parliamentary candidates, it seems like experience really does count.
Recently, the BNF’s parliamentary candidate for Gaborone Central, Kagiso Thutwe, was reduced to shreds by strong discussion points posed by Member of Parliament for Gaborone Central, BCP’s Dumelang Saleshando and BDP’s Motswaledi in front of his own school mates.
The lad, who was also recently the school’s SRC president, started off receiving support from the majority of students who were present at the school’s library auditorium.
Near the end of the debate, it seemed as if the students had gotten impatient with one of their own because he kept repeating the same issues on countless occasions.
Saleshando and Motswaledi, who had obviously been exposed to impromptu speeches in their years of party politics, received better feedback from the students.
According to some of the students present at the meeting, Thutwe clearly did not anticipate the difference between running for SRC presidency and for running for a parliamentary seat.
“The boy could not even state his plans on the way forward, all he continued to do was preach about consultations between the people and their parliamentary candidate. He didn’t lay out the issues affecting the area and how he plans to address them. I doubt if he can even identify the problems we are faced with,” said a student.
A majority of students present said they thought BNF wasn’t serious in their placing an immature candidate against the likes of Saleshando and Motswaledi.
“You ask me what experience I bring to the table, that I cannot answer, all I can say is I am currently an SRC president in the country’s only university, and that I used to work for Botswana National Youth council when I was in junior school,” said Thutwe.
Saleshando himself was accused of carrying out house-to-house consultations on UB campus by BDP’s Armstrong Dikgafela, who claims to have seen the MP on a number of occasions yet he had addressed the students on rare junctures.
“If you had bothered to research more about consultations then you would know that going house to house is considered an acceptable consulting process, and I have always been revealing how the administration refuses to grant us permission to address students. If you had attended any of the 56 meetings we have held in the constituency, then you would be familiar with details,” said Saleshando.
