It was apparent at the two rallies that that his former comrades at the BCP were irked by this call and were ready to take him to task. In Francistown, the first speaker to take Kgosipula head on was the BCP chairperson for Francistown South constituency, Gopolang Botsie.
At a rally held in an open space behind the Galo shopping mall, Botsie asked Kgosipula if he really supports opposition unity as he recently called for other opposition parties to disband and join the BNF. He wondered if this was not likely to disturb some doubting Thomases.
As if he expected this to come from his former comrades in BCP, Kgosipula disposed of the question without any hassles. “By the way comrades, we should not lose sight of the fact that the BNF and BCP constitutions that I am familiar with, allow its members to express their personal views as long as the parties have not come up with a position on a particular issue,” he said, exuding a lot of confidence. The lanky politician added that the two parties have not come up with a position on the matter.
“As a BCP activist, I am concerned that when the two parties continue to talk unity, you go around selling your opinion that is seemingly anti-unity. This is likely to confuse people who were now listening to the opposition. Why are you doing this?” asked Kays Phitshana.
In response, Kgosipula stressed that if people differ on issues, there is nothing wrong with an individual stating his opinion. “I am not the first politician to express his opinion in the media, as other politicians that I know have gone to the media before and this was condoned by others. You know these people,” he replied.
In an afternoon rally held at the E.T. shopping complex, tempers nearly flared when the former BCP MP for Francistown West, Vain Mamela asked Kgosipula why he recently decamped from BCP to BNF. “You said you left the BCP because you have realised that the party has lost direction. When did you realise that the party has lost direction, was it during your tenure as the party secretary-general or after you failed to defend your central committee position?” asked Mamela.
Kgosipula said although he was reluctant to divulge some of the reasons that provoked him to leave the BCP, he was forced to reply Mamela and others with similar questions. He said it was evidently clear that the BCP leadership was now divided on crucial issues including opposition unity. “You can imagine the whole party leader in the mould of Gilson Saleshando going open in the media that he was opposed to opposition unity. This amounted to indiscipline in the party leadership,” wondered Kgosipula.
He added that he had incessant political differences with Saleshando, which were intolerable to him hence he had to leave. Mamela did seem satisfied as he wondered what Kgosipula was up to other than eroding chances of opposition parties working together in the rallies that he was addressing.
He pointed out that statements like the one made by Kgosipula in his maiden speech in Gaborone marking his return to the BNF, were unpalatable and could send a wrong message. Kgosipula had said last December: “BCP e belege ngwana a sa tlhakolwa (messy baby)”. In his explanation, the expression meant that the BCP has a huge problem and it cannot expect other parties not to grow while it (BCP) is growing.
At the Francistown rally, a BNF activist, Robert Maposa took to the podium and pointed out that while Mamela was condemning Kgosipula to be sowing seeds of discord, “it is well known that Mamela and his comrade in Selebi-Phikwe, Nzwaligwa Nzwaligwa have no match in politics of mudslinging and character assassination”.
