BCP July congress to rubber stamp UDC exit
Chakalisa Dube | Tuesday February 21, 2023 06:00
The BCP recently announced plans to exit the UDC citing that its relationship with other coalition partners, particularly Botswana National Front (BNF) and Botswana People’s Party (BPP), was irretrievably broken. The BCP is accusing its partners of flagrantly disregarding good governance. In July last year, a BCP conference in Mahalapye resolved that the party should remain in the UDC for six months while pursuing reconciliation. The conference went on to state that the party should exit the UDC if its demands for good governance were not met or reconciliation was not attained in the six months window. The BCP central committee was given the mandate to explore a reconciliation with other UDC partners and report back to the membership. The central committee is of the view that reconciliation efforts have been futile.
The Monitor has established that the BCP central committee recently met and a decision was reached to take the recommendation to exit the UDC to the conference in July. The venue for the conference is yet to be announced. “A resolution to remain in the UDC for six months while pushing reconciliation was taken by the conference. For this reason, the NEC found it logical to put the recommendation to quit the UDC before the conference for possible ratification,” said an insider. The decision to quit the UDC will inevitably be endorsed by many at the conference because the general feeling has always been that the BCP should ditch the coalition. Sources have also said that the central committee resolved that the party should not pursue reconciliation efforts further with UDC until the conference. The leadership reportedly feels that it is worthless to push for reconciliation given the posture of its partners in the coalition.
BCP spokesperson, Mpho Pheko would not confirm or deny that the central committee has resolved to take the recommendation to exit the UDC for endorsement at the party conference. “This is a matter that we are still discussing internally. Once we have concluded everything we will communicate. The party position on the matter will probably be made public this week,” Pheko told The Monitor.