BMD to hold congress, rebuild
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Tuesday October 18, 2022 06:00
The outgoing president, Advocate Sidney Pilane will officiate at the congress. According to the acting secretary-general Bonang Kolobe, the primary role of their congress is to rebuild the party.
“We are only expecting 25 structures to attend the congress and the general membership of the party. As I said, the core mandate or primary role is to rebuild the party. Our party has been affected by a lot of things that have demoralised the members and for us to rebuild it, we need to relax some of the things in the constitution. Basically, it’s like starting afresh.
Some of the things that affected our party include the split of the party when some formed the Alliance for Progressives (AP), being fired from Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) and our performance in the 2019 General Elections.
The performance of the party was so bad that we only managed to win one ward,” Kolobe said. He admitted that most of the party structures have collapsed and the congress will come up with ways in which they could revive them. In addition, he said the party will also approach some of the members who are not active in order to encourage them to be active again. Kolobe said for any party to function well, it needs voluntary members who can work for it.
Furthermore, the acting secretary-general said unlike other previous congresses, members have not yet come forth to show interest in leadership positions except a few. “So far there is no one who has shown interest to contest for the presidency.
Maybe some will start to show interest this week. We do not have teams as you may have expected. I think the interest of members is to build their party and unite it,” he said. He added that the congress would also deliberate on election and strategy for the 2024 General Elections. The theme of the congress is, ‘Re-building for a Strengthened Democracy'.