Presidential Message: BNPC 11th April 2016, Candidates and Manifesto Launch,

BNFYL Mahalapye

Combat! Botswana need a

new Social Order
A renowned author Andre Brink (2010) captures the words of ANC's armed
military wing, Umkhonto-we-Sizwe in his book entitled 'Let freedom Reign:
the Words of Nelson Mandela', "The time comes in the life of any nation
when there remain only two choices submit or fight" (Brink, 2010).
South-Africans never chose to submit; they fought back and fought
vehemently and viciously! In short, they waged a Combat! Across the
deep seas and vast oceans, Gerry Adams (2005), a former member of the
Northern Ireland Assembly, a staunch Republican, in a speech asking the
Irish Republican Army to abandon violence used powerful words: "Our
struggle has reached a defining moment".
Though in a slightly different context, we say today: "Our struggle has
reached a defining moment". Yes we have reached a defining moment!
The 'defining moment' in as far as the lives and future of the Youth has
fast approached. It is now upon the Youthful generation to 'define the
moments' or let the 'moments define' them. It is for this reason that our
aim reads: Mobilizing the Youth for Combat in 2019 for we are consciously
cognizant of the fact that Regime Change begins with and within us! 2019
is all about Combat. We speak of Combat, Political Combat! We yearn for a
regenerated Botswana National Front Youth League, which is a true
vanguard of the People's revolution. The Botswana Youth yearn for
meaningful politics. The nation yearns for Regime Change! It is all about
Combat. By Combat we mean a purposeful, organized and properly
coordinated agenda an ideologically informed agenda that is meant
to weaken, enfeeble and eliminate the enemy the people's enemy, the
Botswana Democratic Party! We aim to drive the BDP away and out of
Power. They have messed up, it is enough. We would paraphrase Vladimir
Ilyich Lenin's slogan in his September 1917 speech: 'Power to the Soviets'
where he was advancing Bolshevik political aims and we will roar with
bellowed voices like lions and chant 'Power to the Youth, Power to the
People'!
The BDP have presided over the wrecking of precious dreams in the youth
populace! Because of their fascist greed they have shattered our
aspirations. Because of their lustful and rapacious appetite for selfenrichment and aggrandizement, they have blocked the vessels and
valves of our fortune. Ours is a crippled society. Our democracy is a story
of 'Once upon a time'. We have become prisoners in our own homesteads.
We have become foreigners in our own country.

Presidential Message: BNPC 11th April 2016, Candidates and Manifesto Launch,
BNFYL Mahalapye

It is not in dispute that under the BDPs neo-colonial economic policies, a

dark cloud has enveloped the youth across the country with misery and
despondency. Despite the BDP-led government awarding itself a gold
medal for having made socio-economic advances in youth development,
the reality is that thousands of youth are languishing in poverty and
unemployment. With youth unemployment reaching highs of 34% and
increasing every day, the BDP regime has run out of options to liberate
the youth out of this desolation.
We warn this regime that we wont accept poverty in a ridiculously rich
country. We reject naked and cruel economic exploitation and side-lining
that is prevalent in this country including enslaving programmes such as
Government Volunteer Scheme (GVS) and Internship where Youth receive
paltry allowances which are just impoverishing peanuts. In essence we
reject the BDP regime which is a monumental failure, whose
incompetence is now legendary: perhaps known by our Lord Jesus. We live
in a country of 'Fancy figures, ugly facts'! Numbers are nothing but pure
mathematics if they do not translate into reality and transform lives. The
ugly facts in Botswana are downplayed. Conveniently and deceptively the
Regime ululate endlessly when they hear positive indexes about
Botswana, but get angry and frown at us when we talk of negative
statistics, researches and surveys. Facts: Botswana's poverty incidence
stands at 30%, while the Gini-coefficient is 0.61. Unemployment rate
record 17.8 per cent. Gini index measures the extent to which the
distribution of income (or, in some cases, consumption expenditure)
among individuals or households within an economy deviates from a
perfectly equal distribution. In simple terms Botswana is among the
countries with the highest socio-economic disparity or inequalities across
the African diaspora and the world. Botswana portrays an extremely
unequal distribution of wealth and riches. What is not said in these
inequalities is that the Youth are the greatest victims. Now
Unemployment! Unemployment rate record 17.8 %. But this is nothing
compared to youth unemployment. According to World Bank, Youth
Unemployment Rate of Botswana stands at a staggering figure of 34.10%.
It therefore goes without saying that Youth unemployment is double fold
higher than National Unemployment. Furthermore, Botswanas youth
unemployment is second highest in middle income countries.
Youths and the like-minded have to revolt against these disorders. The
envisaged revolution should give birth to a new Social Order. The tired and
fatigued old-age dominance and supremacy in patronage and
employment sector shall be toppled and replaced. The workers shall
democratically topple the worker-unfriendly Regime through 'workers
power'! The downtrodden who are financially embarrassed shall topple the

Presidential Message: BNPC 11th April 2016, Candidates and Manifesto Launch,
BNFYL Mahalapye

petty and comprador bourgeoisies who live lavishly in opulence to their

tearful faces. When those turbulent times arrive, the affected will fear not.
With huge verve, they shall march bravely and gleefully to the dreamland;
a place where their affairs are taken seriously. Mountains shall be moved
and no weapon formed against them, shall prosper. No one and indeed no
one will stop them: not even the seemingly blood-thirsty vampires in the
DIS squad masquerading as security intelligence agents.
Our team concedes that the Botswana National Front Youth League in the
previous years has not been fully utilized to the full capacity as a
revolutionary youth structure to rescue the situation. At the moment, the
unemployed and poor youth are extremely scattered and disorganized to
play any revolutionary role in the struggle of our people. They are as good
as allies of the bourgeoisie class, as Lenin succinctly put it. We believe
that the time has now come for the youth league to reclaim its traditional
vanguard role as we head for a political showdown in 2019. The BNFYL, we
argue, must play its rudimentary role of organizing the disorganized youth
and the poor, mobilizing the workers, forging relations with trade unions
and Student Representative Councils. We shall be the spark of the bonfire!
Summary of the Manifesto:
I must however state that I am proud that I was part of the team
[Makatane-Richard] that have set a record which is now becoming a trend
by authoring an elaborate Manifesto a social contract with our
electorates prior to our elections. It was the first of its kind in BNFYL
internal election. We are happy that we have cultivated that culture. This
we deliberately and consciously did to avert petty politics, and pave way
for issue-oriented politics. Below is a summary of our Manifesto objectives
which are all timed:

Draft a BNF Youths League Economic, Political and Academic

Freedom Charter a blue print that would guide the leagues
interpretation on youth matters, for the purpose of reference and
uniformity. These would elucidates youth policies; policies that are
congruent with the Social Democratic ideological framework.

Adoption of the BNFYL new Constitution: which proceed from a draft

Constitution that was promulgated in 2007 by the Ramaotwana led BNFYL
Central Committee and distributed to delegates at the BNFYL annual
Conference held at Mogoditshane in December 2007.
Revive and erect vibrant Youth structures across the country a
political organization without structures is as good as dead. As a special
dispensation, the process of formation of structures must be intensified

Presidential Message: BNPC 11th April 2016, Candidates and Manifesto Launch,
BNFYL Mahalapye

and accelerated in the northern parts of this country where the BNF is
painfully absent. For the BNF, therefore UDC, to attain power, it needs to
position and presents itself as a 'national' than 'regional' movement.
Structures breathe life in any given organization.
Strengthening the relationship between BNFYL and Labour Movements
Using Marxism-Leninism political ideologies [or any other worker
friendly ideology] as a guiding tool, we promise to strengthen and/or
consolidate a meaningful relation between the youth league and labour
movements
Formulation of BNFYL Social Media Policy to avert and counter the
anarchism and vulgarity that came with the advent of Facebook and other
social media platforms a situation that if unchecked, will render
organizations ungovernable, with serious breach of principles of
governance!
BNFYL strategic alliances with Civil Societies and Community-Based
Organizations e.g. Student Representative Council (SRC) in all tertiary
institutions, Churches, non-unionized workers such as Ipelegeng, the
Disabled and other Non-governmental organizations with an aim to help
emancipate and liberate them.
We will introduce the Concepts of Political Marketing in the BNFYL, and
further recommend them to the BNF. Political Marketing is
professionalization of politics in its entirety. These will be achieved by
among others, an official Interactive BNFYL Website to converse and
connect to the youth populace; properly managed official BNFYL Facebook
page; printing fliers, brochures and pamphlets to market the youth league
and the party; audited database that include membership or any other
relevant information.
Bringing-back the BNFYL Political Culture of 'Mass action' which will
also be aimed at timely and strategically responding to issues of
paramount and national importance.
Re-introduction of Political Classes to combat the evident ideological
bankruptcy caused by lack of Political Education in our political discourse
and intercourse.

LAND POLICY REFORM

The BNFYL promises to revive its long standing policy to ensure that BDP
agents and their foreign handlers do not appropriate the whole land mass
to themselves alone. The BNFYL through UDC will campaign for the
following land reform policy among others:

Presidential Message: BNPC 11th April 2016, Candidates and Manifesto Launch,
BNFYL Mahalapye

That those who acquired land illegally or fraudulently should

not be compensated.
That those who acquired title deeds fraudulently or illegally
acquired land should not be compensated when such land is
compulsorily appropriated by the state.
That those who acquired land legally be compensated
adequately in accordance to market value.

NATIONAL PUBLIC HOUSING PROGRAMME

The BNF policy on decent housing can only be realized if the
BNF/UDC government can develop a national housing programme
strategy. If elected at the BNFYL congress we will embark on
perpetual campaign for BNF/UDC government to establish a budget
to build houses for the poor, destitute and orphans free of charge.

BNF ECONOMIC SYSTEM

The BNF from its inception was formed as a pro-poor, pro-worker and
rights based mass movement. As a broad church which houses procapitalists, pro-socialists, trade unionists, students activists and the poor,
the BNF chose mixed economy system through a Social Democratic
Program to implement its National Democratic Economy to achieve
genuine political and economic freedom. Dr. Koma captures the economic
system to be ushered by the BNF government at page 35 of Pamphlet
No.1 as follows:
We must state once again that our struggle is neither to build capitalism
nor to build socialism. Our economy will of necessity be the economy of
transition from the status of dependence to the status of independence,
that is to say, our economy has to be National Democratic Economy.
At pages 36-37, Dr. Koma states categorically that the BNF as a broad
church will not become a capitalistic or socialistic party but shall be proBotswana, pro-Africa and pro-Progress. The 1995 Social Democratic
Programme also put the debate to rest when it states that the BNF
advocates for a mixed economy system coupled with State intervention.
To this end, any political party that dubs the BNF a socialist or capitalist
party is mischievous. The BNF itself is not a socialist party. It houses
socialists. And socialists do not exist alone in BNF. They co-exist with other
groupings but all are guided by the Social democratic Programme
(SDP). The naked truth is that whereas many parties are Front across the
globe, the BNF, itself is a serious manifestation of a Front! Its character
and body polity is that of a Front. A multi-organisational front cannot have
a specific ideology, because from the literal meaning, it means coexistence of different characters in the political spectrum. The time has

Presidential Message: BNPC 11th April 2016, Candidates and Manifesto Launch,
BNFYL Mahalapye

come to ignore political knee-jerk barracking and shun fake revolutionary

forces who rehearse and recounts Marxist theories to maintain their
relevance in the Front. The BNFYL belongs to the streets.
Our BNFYL would not therefore reinvent the wheel, but reassert, reaffirm
and uphold the BNFs SDC policy posture.
On this basis, we state here and now that, the Private Education system is
here to stay. We cannot foul and blame Private Education for the failure of
Public Education system to deliver and produce results under the now
moribund BDP government, a jaded organization which is sliding into an
inexorable decline. Private entities have a right of existence and operation
much as Public entities have a right to exist. In fact SDP allows both of
them to co-exist. Whereas we are unhappy with many things in Private
schools, including institutionalized fraudulent practices and corruption
alongside bogus courses, we cant abolish or murder them. We can only
call for improved management. What we are advocating for is a
rationalization and regulation of the fees involved. We advocate for quality
Education both in Private and Public Schools under the guiding principle
of Education with Production (EwP) which views Education as a
production process rather than passive acquisition of knowledge,
Education that develops a human being mentally, physically, spiritually
and socially. It is laughable and comical that our dear comrades would
want to pack our kids into these pathetic public schools whose
examination results and performance is at its lowest ebb ever. We fully
associate with and advocate for the implementation of the Revised
National Policy on Education, Kedikilwe Commission.
Ladies and gentlemen, we can see that BNFYL have a solemn and serious
duty to mobilize, organize, educate and 'conscientise' all progressive
guerrillas into a formidable and dynamic political force that can safe-guard
our future. Our diagnosis is that: one major reason why opposition have
not attained state power over the years is lack of political activism and
awareness. No sane soul can doubt the Opposition's policies and
programmes for we all know that BDP policies, if any, cant match ours.
Poor mobilization and consciousness have always denied us victory. We
are to here to mobilize, to organize and to educate politically! This is our
combat ahead of 2019.
We are all invited to this Combat. No one should be left out and behind
for no one is safe in the increasingly ugly Botswana of today. Not media,
not churches, not students and their leaders, not opposition members, not
BDP populace, not the Disabled, not Children, and certainly not Adults. No
one is safe! Thus, no one should abstain. Politics knows no abstinence. To

Presidential Message: BNPC 11th April 2016, Candidates and Manifesto Launch,
BNFYL Mahalapye

those who claim political abstinence and others, fake neutrality, I say to
them here and now: It has become a matter of reality that a man who
says he does not want to be involved in politics is like a man drowning in
the ocean but continue to say he does not want to touch the water.
Let us all march gleefully to the dream land and make this country a
biblical 'Canaan' an unimaginable egalitarian society, if possible,
utopian. Make no mistake, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Victory is
certain. As a nation, we cannot afford to become victims but victors in this
power struggle. We shall change the orders of power and repossess our
possession of 'powerful authority'. We shall, in the practical and truest
sense, make this country, a country of the people, by the people, for the
people. In unity, I believe; in solidarity, I trust. We shall rise again! We
shall rise as renewed people. We shall rise as regenerated people. We
shall rise as revamped people. Yes! We shall rise again!!! God bless
BNFYL, God bless UDC, and God bless Botswana.
Makube njalo. Kuze kube nguna phakade; nga ku jalo ne ku singa
pele kose a go nne jalo ka bosa khutleng. Let it be so forever
and forever: Amen, Amen, Amen and Shalom!