AP members up in arms in Tswapong North
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Sunday March 10, 2024 23:12
For example, David Morewagole, who contested as an AP candidate for the last polls, feels that the party was not backing in their fight to contest the constituency under the UDC ticket.
He said the rigid stance has forced members to consider going against the party.
“We have been working hard to win this area since last year and so far the AP has established its structures in the area as compared to the BPF. The area was at first given to us but it was later given to the BPF after they made an appeal about it to the UDC. Shockingly, the constituency allocation committee had agreed with us but the UDC affiliate presidents overturned the allocation committee decision,” Morewagole said in an interview on Wednesday. He also said they are disappointed that the party leadership, especially the chairperson, has ignored their plea and never bothered to respond to their letter.
Furthermore, he said the constituency committee will meet on Saturday this week to make a conclusion on whether to contest as independent candidates or join another party. He said the meeting would be held at Lerala village and this include eight council candidates.
Their letter dated December 11, 2023 written by regional chairperson, Mookami Mmusi for Letswapo and Gothusang Phuthego of the same regional committee, reads in part: “We refer to an announcement, which was made by the AP president Ndaba Gaolathe on December 9, 2023 at the central committee meeting at the meeting held at the party office in Gaborone.
We are totally against such a decision to allocate Tswapong North to the BPF because we strongly feel that the decision was partial, unfair; it was not based on merit, and moreover, it was not made in outmost good faith. We have invested a lot of time and money mobilising in that constituency since February 2023 to date.” The letter further states that a lot of money estimated at around P100, 000 has been spent on food, transport, fuel and even to buy merchandise.
It further states that they believe that they have more membership than the BPF and stand a better chance of winning the constituency, since they have branded the party more, as they have done more significant work in that area. Moreover, they said the BPF never contested in Tswapong North and it has been allocated most constituencies in Serowe, two in Letswapo region, being Palapye and Tswapong South and therefore, they cannot allow it to take almost the whole Central region without any valid reasons. In the same letter, they revealed that the BPF has a splinter party, the Botswana Republican Party (BRP), which has seriously affected their numbers in Tswapong North.
In addition, they said in 2019 Prince Maele contested as an independent candidate, therefore his numbers cannot be used by the BPF during the negotiations as they understand that they were mentioned in the process. They further pointed out that Maele cannot represent the UDC since he once appeared in court on several occasions being accused by the State for misappropriation of public funds. They further protested; “As a result, therefore, we are also not able to assist the BPF to sell such kind of a candidate to our people, otherwise we would have lost our values and principles.” The region requested the AP leadership to convene a meeting with them and the BPF concerned members, as they did with the Molepolole South and Metsimotlhabe constituencies. The AP secretary-general, Phenyo Butale, told Mmegi this week that he was not aware of such a correspondence emanating from the party region.
"Negotiations were held and decisions have been made. In negotiations one should not expect to win everything, since there are things one will gain and lose. Therefore, I plead with our members to respect the decisions made by the leadership and support it,” he said. Meanwhile, the UDC constituency allocations have caused tensions and rifts among member parties in different constituencies including Kgatleng East and Mmopane/Lentsweletau.