Tutume council chair, deputy survive ‘coup’
Lebogang Mosikare | Monday July 10, 2023 06:00
Recently, the BDP and BCP have been working together in efforts to topple Thatayaone Kehetile and Tabona Masole who are chairperson and deputy chairperson of the TDC respectively. Kehetile is a Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) councillor for Dukwi village while Masole is a Botswana National Front (BNF) councillor for Marobela village.
The BCP, BPF, Botswana National Front (BNF) and Botswana People’s Party (BPP) are affiliates of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC). Marobela and Masole are accused of dereliction of duty.
According to their ‘charge sheet’, the duo did not make sure that the Standing Orders of TDC were formulated since TDC was created following the implementation of the decentralisation policy which led to the TDC, amongst other reasons. Prior to the implementation of the decentralisation policy, TDC was under the then vast Central District Council (CDC).
Part of the reasons to oust Kehetile and Masole can be traced from the acrimonious relationship between the UDC and BCP that have been at loggerheads over good governance and constitutionalism issues amongst other reasons. The BCP accuses the UDC, especially its leader Duma Boko of being a dictator who lacks the above principles but the former denies that assertion. On the other hand, the UDC says Boko embraces the culture of good governance and constitutionalism.
Although Kehetile and Masole dodged the removal bullet because the TDC was not sitting physically, the tit for tat storm between the UDC gained more steam at the Bobirwa District Council (BDC). At the BDC, the UDC worked with the BDP to oust the BCP out of the leadership of the BDC. The UDC has the majority of councillors in the BDC.
The BCP later retaliated at the North West District Council (NWDC) when it entered into an arrangement with the BDP to topple the chairperson and deputy chairperson of the NWDC.
When tabling the motion to introduce an item on the agenda during the TDC full council, the BDP councillor for Nswazwi-Makuta ward, Norman Pitlagano, said that Kehetile and Masole should be removed from their positions because of “dereliction of duty”. Giving the history of where the plan to topple Kehetile and Masole originated, Pitlagano said that when the TDC full council convened on June 12, the BDP was supposed to table the vote of no confidence against Kehetile and Masole on June 13.
“Unfortunately we were not able to table the motion because there was no electricity.
We were supposed to attend the full council sessions virtually. When there is no supply of electricity, we physically attend council sessions. Our requests to attend the council sessions physically were rebuffed by the TDC executive (chairperson and deputy chairperson of TDC and chairpersons and deputy chairpersons of various TDC committees.
We refused what we were told and insisted on attending the council sessions physically but our efforts bore no fruits,” said Pitlagano. “The TDC executive told us to table the motion on June 14 but unfortunately the chairperson was held up by some TDC commitments and he could not attend the council session. We were then promised that we will table the motion on June 16 but it was also not possible.
On June 19 we were then told that we cannot table the motion because the motion was not urgent. The chairperson told us that we could have tabled the motion when the full council session commenced... We ended up not being able to table the motion because there was no how we could manage to collect the requisite number of signatures of councillors who were supporting the motion. However, we may call for a special council meeting in which all councillors will be required to attend physically to table the motion again.” A BCP councillor in the TDC is of the view that the position adopted by some of his comrades to seek the position of the chairperson was untenable.
The councillor, who spoke to Mmegi on condition of anonymity for fear of victimisation, said that the BCP could have accepted the position of deputy chairperson in similar fashion to what transpired in the NWDC between the BCP and BDP. “My fellow BCP councillors adopted a hard line position that is not backed by empirical evidence.
It is a well known fact that the BDP has the majority of councillors in the TDC. We could have just swallowed our pride and settled for the position of deputy council chairperson. The UDC is regularly pounding us with brickbats in virtually every space but we allowed it to retain positions that have the potential to give us political mileage.
Our relationship with the UDC has irretrievably broken down and it is only a matter of time before that becomes official. Our July conference is going to give us the green light to officially leave the UDC,” the displeased BCP councillor said.
A BCP councillor who was deployed to talk to the media about the motion of no confidence, Moseki Mathodi, said the party had not been consulted by the BDP about the tabling of motion of no confidence against Kehetile and Masole. When quizzed further on what the BCP will do in the event that the BDP tables the motion of no confidence, Mathodi said they will cross that bridge when they get there.
Efforts to get a comment from Kehetile yesterday (Thursday) were fruitless because his phone numbers were not available. Kehetile had however told Mmegi in the past that he was aware of the plot to oust him and his deputy for ‘dereliction of duty’. Kehetile said: “I have heard corridor discussions that there is a plot to oust me and my deputy.
According to the Standing Orders from the CDC that we are still using because we have not created our own owing to the lack of a council attorney whose vacancy has since been advertised amongst other reasons, there shall be reasons shall as death and insolvency among others for council chairperson and his deputy to be removed from their positions.” Kehetile also reiterated that the making Standing Orders is a technical assignment that cannot be done by councilors alone without the extensive input and advice of the council attorney among other reasons. “We currently don’t have an attorney and his/her vacancy has been advertised.
However, our council has been conducting its obligations according to the dictates of the Local Government Act (2012) despite the lack of our own Standing Orders,” Kehetile explained. Kehetile added that the plot to remove him and Masole is a political witch hunt. “People want to remove us from our positions merely because we are members of the opposition.
I even don’t know if the BCP has joined forces with the BDP to remove us. We are however performing our duties to the best of our abilities and as expected,” said Kehetile.