Lekang: From cleaner to council chambers
Pini Bothoko | Friday April 17, 2015 10:42
But, the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) councillor has rags to riches story to tell.
It was not an easy road to the chambers. For 26 years, she donned overalls as a cleaner at the Institute of Health Sciences (IHS) in Francistown, while on the other side fighting to win political office to represent citizens of the country’s second city.
Last October, the dream was realised when the 66-year old Lekang won the Ntshe ward seat in the Francistown East constituency.
The BDP activist garnered a convincing 545 votes against 409 of Maxwell Motsu of Botswana Congress Party (BCP).
The mother of six, who has no professional background, made a giant leap in life when she traded sweeping brooms for the air-conditioned council chambers at the Francistown Civic Centre. Her only qualification is a Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) certificate.
Lekang confidently narrated her political journey, which dates back as far as 1979 when she developed love for politics.
Just like Martin Luther King Jr, Lekang told Mmegi that she had a dream of one day becoming a community leader.
“As a young electorate back in the days, I developed the love for politics and dreamt of one day representing people. I had a dream and knew that I would one day accomplish it,” she said.
The sexagenarian revealed that she became active in politics back in 1989, when she took active participation in the BDP committees.
Lekang said that she started contesting in the party primary elections back in 1998.
Back then, Lekang said there was a committee of 18 that was responsible for nominating people who will represent the party.
“I was one of few women who showed interest in representing the party, but I was not chosen; but I never lost hope,” said Lekang.
“I contested for the second time in 1999 and lost again. I also tried my luck for the third time during 2003 Bulela Ditswe and lost again. I knew that one day my dream would come true. I kept on contesting,” she said adding that she never lost hope because she lost during the time when the public believed that women were not capable of being good leaders.
“Those were the difficult times for women in politics. Our male competitors used tradition as a strategy to decampaign us,” said Lekang.
She said that she had a dream and knew that her destiny was predetermined and she won the primary elections in 2009 only to lose by 62 votes against BCP’s Albert Mosojane in the general elections.
In 2009, she was elected the chairperson of BDP’s Government Camp ward now called Ntshe ward and the position motivated her even more.
The senior citizen said that her dream finally came true after 15 years of contesting when she won the 2013 BDP primary elections again.
“In the years of contesting and losing, I learnt a lot about politics and familiarised myself with the political business. I finally used the opportunities in my favour and emerged a winner in the 2014 general elections,” she said. She revealed that it was the most difficult times in her life as just towards elections, she lost her husband, Steven Lekang. Despite the setback, she soldiered on and emerged victorious.
Like other leaders, Lekang revealed that she has identified challenges that people in her area are faced with and ways to tackle them. She said issues of concern in her area are unemployment and poverty amongst others.
Lekang explained that problems of poverty and unemployment in her constituency could be addressed if women and youth utilise the current government poverty eradication programmes that are meant to empower them.
“I have been doing research on how the Department of Gender Affairs can help women in my area start their own businesses. I intend to advise them to form groups, come with a business idea and seek financial support from the department,” she said.
She also identified crime as one of the major concerns in her ward mostly blaming high numbers of illegal immigrants in her area as a problem. Lekang said as they are located on the outskirts of the city, they are the first stop for illegal immigrants on their arrival.
She disclosed that the majority of them use old and abandoned structures as their homes thus using it as their hiding places after committing crime.
“The people of Areas S in my ward have formed a crime combating group and have volunteered to patrol day and night to fight crime in the area. I have been encouraging other people to copy from them and fight crime,” she explained.
Lekang said that she would strive to involve government in other existing challenges like internal roads that are currently in bad condition.
Lekang would not commit to her intentions for the next elections, in 2019, insisting a decision to contest or not will be taken in due course.
“I am not getting any younger, in five years time I might be active enough to contest or not so it will depend on how I feel,” said Lekang. She was, however, confident to reveal that she has done a lot for her community as a VDC chairperson as well as the 36 years she spent working for the ruling party.