AP bans lobbylists
Lebogang Mosikare | Monday July 18, 2022 06:00
The AP will hold its congress under the theme, “To move Botswana into a paragon of nation building and prosperity”, stated the party’s spokesperson, Dr Phenyo Butale.
However, Butale said AP does not allow lobbylists. “Our members compete for all positions on offer based on the ideals of the party. Nominations will be done from the floor of the congress,” he clarified.
In Botswana, lobbylists have a history of breeding a seemingly endless string of discontent between competing rivals within political parties. Recently, two members of the Botswana National Front (BNF) who are said to be sympathetic to the lobbylist of Dr Baatlhodi “Bucs” Molatlhegi, which is fiercely challenging another lobbylist led by the BNF president Duma Boko for the leadership of the BNF, took it to court in a bid to interdict its congress from taking place. The fissures brought about by lobbylists, which the AP, wants to prevent at all costs are not only confined to opposition parties.
In the past, former Cabinet minister and Serowe West legislator, Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi took the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) to court on a certificate of urgency arguing against the party’s decision to remove 26 names from her list of sponsoring delegates, a decision that effectively ended her challenge against the incumbent, president Mokgweetsi Masisi... However, a bench of three judges ruled that Venson-Moitoi had no right to be heard before the court.
The judges said that Venson-Moitoi had not declared in her founding affidavit whether she was a citizen of Botswana by birth or naturalisation. Venson-Moitoi’s father is of Malawian descent.
Asked what will be on the agenda during the congress, Butale stated that cooperation with other opposition parties and the amendment of the party’s constitution amongst other items will feature prominently during the congress. Before the Bophirima ward by-election in April that was won by the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), the AP supported the Botswana Congress Party (BCP), an affiliate of the UDC, after the BCP decided to go solo during the by-election.
The BCP believes its candidate for Bophirima was elbowed by the UDC from representing the coalition during the by-election hence its decision to compete against the latter. Before the scandal hit the Bophirima by-election, the AP was in negotiations with the UDC with a view to joining it. In fact, the BCP and AP have already started to work together outside the Opposition Negotiations Forum-a claim that the UDC has distanced itself from. Quizzed if the AP will be supporting the BCP again after the latter pulled a Bophirima stunt by deciding to field its candidate during the upcoming by-election in Moselewapula ward in Francistown West outside the UDC, Butale said that as the highest decision making organ of the party, the AP congress will give it the green light about how to proceed in cooperation talks with other opposition parties.
However, AP insiders say it is a foregone conclusion that the AP congress will give it the green light to abandon cooperation with the UDC but instead continue its cooperation negotiations with the BCP. The insiders say that intense lobbying has been happening within the AP for it to ditch negotiations about joining the UDC. This, the insiders added, is fuelled by the recent goings-on within the UDC which have seen the UDC suspending the its vice president, Dumelang Saleshando, who is also the president of the BCP, and Goretetse Kekgonegile, the secretary general of the BCP.
The AP is said to be sympathetic to the BCP. Butale also stated that the Ndaba Gaolathe led movement has invited all opposition parties to grace the congress. Butale added: “We have also invited trade unions and churches to attend our congress.” The invitation of trade unions to the AP congress will be of strategic importance to its electoral prospects. Last year, the Botswana Federation of Public, Private and Parastatal Sector Unions (BOFEPUSU) released its Workers’ Charter that it wants political parties to draw from when coming up with their election manifestos.
BOFEPUSU also says its Workers’ Charter is the federation’s policy blueprint. According to BOFEPUSU president, Johannes Tshukudu the Workers’ Charter spells out the federation’s ideological framework, policy and strategic guide in dealing with all social, economic and political matters that are core to the existence and realisation of workers’ rights and their independence as citizens of Botswana.