Margaret Nasha – Botswana

The Minister of Local Government, Margaret Nasha, speaking at the launch of the Botswana Association of Local Authorities (BALA) Women’s Commission on 10 December 2008, said “Women have the power in politics because they have the numbers. In all the political parties, about 60% of the voters are women.”

“At the branch and constituencies, it is the men who are holding top positions while the majority of the voters are women who voted against their fellow women who stood against those men,” Nasha said. She added that women who show interest in standing up against men in top positions in politics continue to be addressed as ‘this woman,’ regardless of how much they have achieved in their careers.

Nasha asserted that when she took over the Ministry of Local Government, she made it a point to nominate more women to balance the scales in councils, but was met with hostility from both men and women. “You women joined the men who were insulting me over the decision,” she said.
The Minister requested the councillors to ask their political parties to stop making them stand for elections in difficult wards that they know they are bound to lose. She told them that they are the ones who raise the money for the parties, they sign during the campaigns and cook for everyone.

“Why can’t you speak and be heard? The primary elections are over and there are no women candidates”, she observed.