YOUTH AT WORKSHOP PESSIMISTIC ABOUT POLITICAL INFLUENCE Many young people are not optimistic that their participation in politics can improve their welfare. This is despite youth making up two thirds of Botswana’s population. Speaking during a workshop on youth participation in elections in Francistown on Wednesday, the political and economic officer at the United States (US) Embassy, Ms Janet Kennedy observed most of local youth seemed resigned to the fact that the elderly would continue to rule because they were better resourced. She noted that, like in the US, voter apathy amongst the youth in Botswana was worrying, observing that most of the workshop participants thought that it was impossible to bring about change through voting. She, however, urged the workshop participants to take an active part in politics if they wanted their concerns to be addressed. “By participating in politics and registering to vote in elections, you can make a huge impact and influence change in your country,” she said. She also urged the youth to take themselves seriously and be organised if they expected to make any change in their social and economic situation, further advising that: “You need to be vocal about your issues and use the media. Also, you should start taking ownership of your situations and not waiting for the elderly to do things for you.” Ms Kennedy said Botswana, unlike other countries, had a free media which the youth could use to push their issues to the forefront of the development process. Consequently, she mentioned that the US Embassy’s political and economic section organized the workshop because youth outreach was a top priority for the US embassy; hence every time they get out of Gaborone they made an attempt to interact with them to hear their perspective. She said she was working with the Independent Electoral Commission to plan for a workshop on youth ambassadors who would go around the country motivating their peers on the importance of voting. One of the workshop participants, Mr Prince Madziba said most of the youth were unemployed; hence it was difficult for them to stand for political office or even to lobby for their inclusion into elective positions. He also highlighted that politicians were not coming up with credible plans to improve the welfare of young people. For one to campaign for political office, he said, they needed financial resources to compete with elder politicians. In addition, he said even if one youth was voted into parliament, they did not stand any chance to influence policy as a majority of elders were a stumbling block. For her part, the regional chairperson of the Botswana National Youth Council, Ms Thandeka Nleya explained that for young people to be fully empowered there was need to elect youthful MPs during elections as the current crop of politicians did not understand issues affecting the youth. “At least five specially elected MPs should comprise of young people who can best articulate the position of their peers,” she noted. One youth, Ms Mpho Raditholo said the youth did not actively participate in elections because when they wanted to stand for elective office they were told that they were still young to lead while some were intimidated by experienced politicians. He, however, believed that with serious lobbying young people could influence government to attend to their concerns expeditiously. On other issues, he said if the youth thought that old people would bring to an end their suffering they should as well forget about their empowerment. Some of the youth blamed culture for voter apathy and lack of youth participation in politics. Culture, they argued does not allow the youth to challenge the elders on issues affecting them and when they ask to be listened to, they were deemed as being disrespectful to the elderly. (BOPA)
Posted on: Fri, 23 Aug 2013 16:41:19 +0000
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