BUSINESS • COMMUNITY • IMPACT
Emang Basadi Elects New President: MEET THERESA MMOLAWA
- LEADING IN THE BUSINESS OF CSR
Emang Basadi (EB), one of the country’s first non-governmental, non-profit making women’s human rights organisations, recently welcomed its newest president, Theresa Mmolawa, on December 4th, 2021. Formally founded in 1986 after a group of female friends started weekly meetings at the University of Botswana to discuss their mutual interest in issues affecting women in Botswana, Emang Basadi also came after the government formed the Women’s Affairs Unit under the Ministry of Home Affairs in 1981.
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his founding group of women felt that the Women Affairs Unit did not address critical issues affecting women and those government departments marginalised and perceived women in terms of welfare rather than politics and so they wanted to change that narrative. The term 'Emang Basadi' is a Setswana phrase, meaning, 'Rise Women.' Emang Basadi Community Empowerment Emang Basadi's key objective is to render the principles of equality, justice, and peace for both genders in Botswana. It currently has a membership capacity of approximately 2000 men and women. The organisation's main goal is to develop action-orientated strategies, mobilising women to take steps that help change their social, political, economic, and legal positions in Botswana. As a form of execution and implementation, EB raises stakeholder and the general public's awareness through lobbying, advocacy, capacity development, legal aid, and counselling services for the empowerment of women. Emang Basadi departed radically from the traditions of established women's organisations, which were essentially welfare-oriented. The movement challenged men's
monopoly of the legislature such that in 1993, Emang Basadi officially changed its strategy, and shifted its focus, from championing individual rights to political empowerment, seeking to increase women's representation in the legislature, political parties, and cabinet. Meet Theresa Mmolawa: Emang Basadi's new President A teacher by profession, Mmolawa rose through the ranks of education development from being a primary school teacher to retiring as a School Head at Maoka Junior Secondary School (JSS) in Gaborone. She attributes her success in teaching to having a passion for it, citing that she loves teaching because she enjoys working with, and learning from other people. Mmolawa said the profession helped her to be accommodating and tolerant of others. She believes in a "bottom-up" management style because she believes that as a leader you are ultimately a servant of the people, and as such, should serve with diligence and humility. Mmolawa also believes in participative management, where everyone in an organisation has an impactful contribution that should not be overlooked. She said up to this day this is the same belief she carries in other areas of her life, and this is what she intends to do in her new role as the President of Emang Basadi.
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