BDP's Kario targets Serowe
Innocent Selatlhwa | Wednesday September 28, 2022 15:46
Like a vulture watching hyenas feeding on a carcass, the BDP is working on convincing people of Serowe to go back to ‘Sir Seretse Khama’s' party.
Ruling party members painted Serowe red over the weekend at veteran Prince Kgwaneng's tombstone unveiling which culminated in the newly elected party secretary-general, Kavis Kario's meet and greet session. “Following the tombstone unveiling of our stalwart Kgwaneng, we met with party members to assure them that we are still in this together.
We suffered a blow in 2019, but we are still strong and we have a strategy in place for Serowe as a special area for us,” Kario told The Monitor. “ I am happy with the energy here and we encouraged them to work hard to ensure that we go back to winning Serowe as it has always been the case.” Kario, who defeated Shaw Kgathi for the position last month, said he will be engaging with more ruling party members in their various constituencies as they start preparing for the 2024 General Election. He said another area of interest would be Mahalapye where the BDP was traditionally untouchable. Both Mahalapye West and East constituencies are now in the hands of the Umbrella for Democratic Change. While Serowe has historically been a BDP stronghold, the party lost all three constituencies as well as most council seats to BPF.
The BPF came in hot with one of its legislators, Tshekedi Khama of Serowe West, winning with the BPF despite dumping the BDP just a few hours before the nominations of the parliamentary candidates for the 2019 General Election.
Kario and the BDP would be looking to turn the party's fortunes around as it converts and enlists the opposition's disgruntled members as now their patron Ian Khama, who was solely credited for the BPF triumph, is now in exile in South Africa. Khama has reportedly said he would be taking a backseat in party affairs for some time while the BPF is embroiled in infighting within its central committee.