Knives out for Masitara
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Thursday March 27, 2014 13:00
Incumbents and council candidates for the area have written a letter to the BDP central committee requesting a new candidate for the parliamentary seat.
A letter dated March 26, signed by councillors and aspiring candidates, states that, “We are directing this letter to the central committee because our branch committee is dysfunctional as it has been tasked with taking the said document to the regional committee which they never did to date. We thus recommend that we be fielded a fresh candidate as a matter of urgency and the branch committee be dissolved.
The complainants state that the constituency office has been dysfunctional for the past three months and the electorate have been complaining about the MP’s absence.
Instead of undertaking their official duties, the BDP activists say the constituency staff is being used to distribute Masitara’s campaign material.
This abuse of government employees, they argue, de-campaigns and undermines the BDP, as was evidenced by a local newspaper report recently.
The letter further states that Masitara has failed to hold a meeting between himself and the candidates prior to and after Bulela Ditswe and that he has created animosity amongst the sitting councillors.
Moreover, the complainants allege that Masitara has never attended a single meeting with his councillors since he was elected to Parliament in 2009.
Still in the same letter, the concerned members complain that Masitara called a meeting at Galaletsang Primary School, which he never attended. Then he called councillor John Mazabathi over the phone, to tell the gathering what he had informed the previous meeting.
Mazabathi is said to have told the members that the MP wanted them to bury their differences and work together.
He is said to have also informed the meeting that Masitara would be out of the country for a while.
Mmegi has learnt that council candidates worry that it would be difficult to campaign when the parliamentary candidate is not around.
The signatories of the letter are John Mazabathi Mokandla, Odireleng Disele, Lillian Piet, Tshepo Dlamini, Nicklas Bok, Khumo Sebex, Tshekiso David, Khumoetsile Mokgaoganyi, Kabo Enerst Mabe and Action Benjamin.
The greatest qualm is that opposing parliamentary candidates, Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) president, Duma Boko and Anna Motlhagodi of the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) are gaining ground.
Masitara declined to comment, saying he has not been given a copy of the letter.
The BDP secretary general Mpho Balopi also refused to shed light on the matter saying it was an internal party matter that it is still to be heard.