Dingake advises warring BNF, BCP
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Monday June 6, 2022 06:00
Opposition parties will not take over a government while divided. Batswana need united opposition parties. I don’t think it will be wise for any party to move out of the UDC. What is very important is for all the two parties to agree to involve a neutral mediator to help them solve their differences within the UDC. They all need to swallow their pride and look at the bigger picture,” Dingake said. He said the mediator should not be a person with his or her own agendas band should not be biased and also fair. Dingake believes that both parties could still work out their differences or find ways to work together amicably. He said opposition parties must be careful that some Batswana who have been sympathetic to them would soon lose trust in them and that is going to discourage them from voting and the ruling party, Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) could win with bigger margins.
Dingake said if one party moves out of the UDC it will affect all the parties and the UDC leaders must look into the issue seriously. Mmegi has learnt that some BCP elders intend to meet with the BCP leadership over the issue of the dispute with the BNF.
One of the elders, Batisani Maswibilili, said he cannot say anything regarding the matter since as elders they will still meet with party leadership. Recently, the UDC has asked the BCP to make a formal apology for some of the statements it has been making about the coalition, and it has since refused to do so. Instead, the BCP is calling for the UDC elective congress. Currently, the BCP leadership will be guided by the party congress in July on the best decision to take after a full briefing by party president Dumelang Saleshando on the matter. The party congress is the final decision-making body. The UDC on the other side has always denied stalling the congress and has instead disclosed that all the three parties in the coalition, which include the Botswana People’s Party (BPP), agreed to halt the congress until negotiations with other political parties are over.
At the Bobonong rally, the BCP president Dumelang Saleshando said people should not be surprised to see the BCP working with the Alliance for Progressives (AP) because they have yoked together. “When we listen to what the AP have to say, we realise that what they believe in is aligned to ours,” he added. While they remain in the UDC despite all that has happened recently, the BCP has not dismissed the possibility of the formation of another coalition with the AP.
The BCP says what happened between the BCP and the AP at Bophirima ward was spontaneous. “It came about naturally, thanks to our shared commitment to constitutionalism, democracy, a clean, ethical, and competent government, and our common aversion for dictatorship and unilateralism. That said, what ultimately happens between the BCP and the AP will depend on our respective national conferences,” BCP spokesperson, Mpho Pheko said recently.