28 Nov 2018

Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Ms Botlogile Tshireletso has expressed gratitude for the 40 years she spent as a public representative both as a councillor and a Member of Parliament.

In response to the State-of-the-Nation-Address (SONA), Mahalapye East legislator said having already announced that she would be stepping down from active politics after the 2019 general elections, she looked back at her time in politics with much appreciation.

“By the time my term ends in 2019, I would have spent 15 years as an MP and 25 as a councillor, which is 40 years in active politics.  

I am grateful first to the people of Mahalapye for their unwavering support, to the late founding President, Sir Seretse Khama because when I started my political career he was our leader.  

I also thank former president Sir Ketumile Masire, with whom I served from my time in the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) Youth National Executive Committee as well as former presidents

Festus Mogae and Lt Gen. Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama with whom I served as an assistant minister and chairperson of the BDP Women’s League,” Ms Tshireletso said.

Also, she thanked President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi for his SONA, particularly for mentioning that the Sexual Offences Bill was being drafted in order to protect vulnerable women and children who suffer from abuse.

She urged government to go further to consider other forms of protection for sexual minorities.

“We have children who are born into a particular gender but with strong hormones of the other gender; some children are even born with sexual organs of the two sexes.  

We should make a law that would protect such people, their health needs as well as the legal protection of their gender status.  

If someone was registered as a boy, and grows up to discover that the female hormones are strongest in their body, we should not leave it to the courts to decide, the government should allow for them to reclassify their sexual category in their identity documents,” Ms Tshireletso voiced.

She further thanked the president for mentioning that the Marriage Act of 2001 would be placed under review since it does not legislate for religious and traditional marriages.  

Ms Tshireletso said that women in particular were not properly protected in customary marriages.

In order to address HIV/AIDS, Mr Tshireletso said government should offer protection to sex workers as they bear the brunt of the disease and were often abused by their clients.  

In countries such as the Netherlands where sex work was legal and monitored, she said there was less chance for abuse to take place. “There was a time I had a workshop for sex workers in Gaborone and they gave harrowing tales about their experience.  

It is time we understood their plight, since we already know that there is high HIV infection rates among this group of people.

We need interventions to ensure that sex work is destigmatised and we offer them protection and medical care,” Ms Tshireletso stated. On other issues, Ms Tshireletso thanked government for the Ipelegeng programme.

In future, she said it could be improved by being synchronised with other programmes such as the Poverty Eradication scheme in order to better complement each other in empowering Batswana. END