Lekopanye Mooketsi
8 April 2008
Gaborone — President Ian Khama made no consideration for the youth last week when he appointed his new cabinet, complain youth organisations.
In his cabinet appointments, the President left out youthful MPs like Botsalo Ntuane, Edward Raletobane, Ronald Ridge and Kavis Kario who all hold degree qualifications in various fields.
Khama even appointed an old veteran, Gladys Kokorwe to the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture. Kokorwe, who was the deputy Speaker of Parliament prior to the appointment, served as an assistant minister before.
The fact that Khama has overlooked the youth has not gone down well with organisations that represent the youth.
The chairperson of the Botswana National Youth Council (BNYC), Elias Rantleru said they wanted a young person appointed to the cabinet.
He said Ntuane has been an outstanding MP who addresses issues with a broad mind. "We need people like him. Even elderly people need him," he said.
He said youthful ministers could cater for the interests of the youth. "It is high time that we have youth representatives," he said. However, he has not lost hope as he said the new Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture might do things 'like a mother'.
Rantleru called on the youth to take a more active part in politics.
However, he lamented that political parties do not take young people seriously. He cited the issue of youth leagues, which, he said, were not sponsored by the main parties. He said even resolutions that are passed at youth league congresses are not discussed at the mother body level.
He said young people are used to campaign for old politicians. But he said it is high time that young people use their skills to bargain for more political power. Rantleru said the youth should also take advantage of their numerical strength to vote for one another.
The president of the Botswana Congress Party (BCP)Youth League, Sethibe Sethibe expressed disappointment that Khama did not consider young people in his cabinet reshuffle.
"We thought he was going to do something about youth empowerment. But now it is very clear that he does not want to empower the youth," he said. Sethibe said Khama's government is going to turn military since he seems to be only interested in working with soldiers.
The publicity secretary of the Botswana National Front (BNF) Youth League, Arafat Khan, said the fact that Khama did not appoint any young person to the cabinet, shows that he is not interested in the youth. "We expected him to appoint youthful MPs like Botsalo Ntuane," said the BNF youth activist.
Over all, Khan dismissed Khama's cabinet as the weakest ever in the country's history. He said some people who do not have a background in health like Utlwang Matlhaphiri were appointed to that ministry. Matlhabaphiri is the new assistant Minister of Health, whilst Lesego Motsumi has been moved from works and transport, to head the ministry.
Khan said Khama was only picking his yes men. He said the President did not explain why he dropped the other ministers.
He charged that even the appointment of Khama's deputy, Mompati Merafhe was based on the fact that they belong to the same faction in the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP)and they are both Bangwato. He added that Khama considered Merafhe because he is also a former military man like him.
He argued that if the appointment of the vice president was based on merit, then Ponatshego Kedikilwe could have been the right person for the job. However, he said, the only problem is that Kedikilwe is from the wrong faction in the BDP.
He described Khama as a dictator because he has appointed his "friend", Isaac Kgosi, as the director of the Directorate on Intelligence and Security Services. "This country is heading for a monarchy and dictatorship," he charged.
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I think its not far for us as the youth of botswana it clearly shows that they dnt careabout us, i mean what will happen if ronald ridge or ntuane were ministers instead of our current old MPS,they always talk about being the leaders of tomorrow how willbut they dont trust us want to to be in thecountrys decision making panel,so why should we vote for them?i think its high time our country being lead by someone young who has fresh ideas.i thought pres khama was going to be better than our previos presidents but now im looaing hope