Kedikilwe: The disinclined, loyal man of the people

At the outset, Serowe West legislator Onalepelo Kedikilwe was reluctant to partake in local politics, opting instead to focus on his businesses in Serowe where he is managing his butcheries and also tending his farming enterprise. However, a little persuasion from constituents at Palamaokuwe ward within the constituency swayed his thoughts on politics culminating in him contesting and the rest is history. Writes Mmegi Staffer RYDER GABATHUSE “The constituents simply implored me to be their secretary at Palamaokuwe ward. There was mistrust between the people and their then councillor whom they associated with the then emerging Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD),” recalls Kedikilwe. At one of the party meetings, constituents duly made a decision to rope him as their ward candidate in the impending General Election. Their position was that, they have found a “councillor in me.” Initially, the businessman-cum-politician had eschewed the offer as he was not ready to be active in politics yet, since he had his businesses to run. Those who had earmarked Kedikilwe as their candidate, would then trail his wife and other party elders to convince him to take up the assignment and they did the rest of the spade work for him. One of the days, a party elder in the ward, Osi Lesetedi, buttressed the message of the people for Kedikilwe to carry their assignment with promises that they would conduct house- to-house campaigns for him and hand over victory on a silver platter at the polls. “I was reluctant to stand. They informed me that they had already done the spade work. “This was in 2008 and in the elections year 2009, I was the party council candidate at Palamaokuwe and the people’s promise came to pass.