Bulawa, an avid educationist

Patricia Edwin | Wednesday July 23, 2014 11:38

Bulawa said he trained as a secondary school teacher and taught for 10 years before moving on to become an education officer and regional education officer from 1990 until 2001. 

He later joined the University of Botswana (UB) as an Assistant Director at Centre for Academic Development.

Bulawa acquired his BA Humanities from The University of Botswana and Swaziland, a Masters Degree in Education Management from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom and obtained a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from the University of Jamescook in Australia.  He said he won two awards of excellence while studying for his PhD. “I was awarded the Dean’s Award for best PhD, and was also considered best by the Queensland State and I value these awards,” he said.

Bulawa admitted that he is drawn towards helping in schools. He has even adopted Sekakangwe Primary School by sponsoring it and others with computers and library books.  “I use my sources and networks to find the people who can help the schools in my locality with anything that they need; whether it is computers, printers or library books,” he said. Already he has facilitated the building of a library and ensured that there were enough books on the library shelves for one of the schools.

His passion to sponsor schools, he said, started when he was still a teacher. He would buy trophies, prizes and sponsor awards for both the primary and secondary schools.  He said he has also worked with Village Development Committees (VDC) to help them with projects that could help them generate income for their villages.  Bulawa is passionate about mother tongue instruction as he said he wants children to learn in their own languages, similar to how it is done internationally. “In other nations it is not even a debate that children should be taught in their mother tongue,” he said.

He gave countries in the region as examples.

“Zimbabwe has recently included indigenous languages such as Setswana, Ikalanga and Sepedi in their curriculum,” he said.  He further added that in Namibia, Setswana is being taught and their government has employed teachers from Botswana.  Bulawa said when he goes to parliament, there is going to be a war of words on this issue. “I will table the motion over and over again,” he said. He believes what the Botswana Democratic Party is doing is unfair and tribalistic.

“This happened in South Africa when everyone was forced to speak Afrikaans. This is what is happening in Botswana now with people being forced to learn in English and Setswana only,” he said.

Bulawa further said that Tati West is a border constituency that should be treated as such, like other border towns or villages in the world.  Towns and villages in proximity to the border are developed strategically so that trade can take place there.  Tati West should have priority in terms of development and investment because of its proximity to countries such as Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia and others.

“What should happen is that when people from other countries reach Tati West or the North East District, they should immediately stop and begin to trade.  Masunga should be a headquarters.  The government has to invest more into Masunga and the North East and it should become a centre of excellence,” said Bulawa.  He further said that road networks, medical care and other services should be of first class standard in Masunga.  “Import cars are no longer allowed to pass through South Africa, which means now they have to go through Walvis Bay.  However, there is nothing stopping them in Botswana as they pass and go all the way to Plumtree,” he said.

He said there is no better-located place than Masunga. Bulawa further said that another issue for him is that workers’ salaries are pathetic.  “Botswana is said to have the best GDP per capita but workers are not paid (enough), especially unionised ones. Employees have to be paid because they represent government policies and agendas,” he added. 

Speaking about his political career, Bulawa said he has always been involved in politics.  He grew up in a family of activists for the Botswana Peoples Party (BPP), though he has never been a BPP member himself.  Bulawa said he has once held the position of policy director in the BCP.

One of the highlights of his political career is when he attended a conference of the Labour Party with the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his entire cabinet.

“I was there for more than a week and I was the only Motswana, although there were other people from African countries such as Tanzania, South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and so on,” he said.  He said he has always admired Phillip Matante and Mpho Motsamai.  In university he joined student politics in the BNF as an activist.

“I continued to be an activist for the BNF, even when I was working as a teacher,” he said.  He remained with the BNF until the formation of the BCP, which he joined.  Bulawa said he wants to represent the Tati West constituency in Parliament because it is his home and that it lacks of developments that can uplift the lives of the constituents.

He is a single father to two children aged 26 and 11 respectively. His wife died of cancer in 2007.