Moeng Pheto unplugged
Oarabile Mosikare | Wednesday April 23, 2014 13:00
Pressed to reveal their relationship, he says: 'I refuse to talk about that. I don't think it is the right time to talk about it.'
Pheto, who is now an independent MP after his resignation from the BDP last week, says he leaves the question to the judgement of Batswana.
Pheto resigned after his appeal to the BDP appeals committee to review the outcome of the contentious primary elections he narrowly lost to the newly appointed acting Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, Vincent Seretse was not heard. The retired major general of the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) was Khama's junior at the army before he resigned to join the diplomatic service in the late 1990's.
There are allegations that the two do not see eye to eye since their BDF days. When Khama took over the presidency on April 1, 2008, he dropped Pheto from his ministerial position. Pheto had been the Minister of Labour and Home Affairs under President Festus Mogae. For six years since, Pheto had been a backbencher.
He tells Mmegi that for some time now, there has been a lot of dissenting voices in the BDP about the leadership style. For instance, he alleges that during the 2011 Mahalapye congress, the issue of the dismissed essential service employees from public service for their participation in the strike was a challenge.
'I was one of the 12 MPs who had met the unions. The party was not happy about the move.'
He dismisses the popular view that like other primary elections losers, they are bitter and would not have complained about the lack of inner democracy in the ruling party. Pheto says there were a number of BDP MPs who were not happy about the state of affairs at the party and had voiced their concerns at appropriate party forums.
He traces this state of affairs to the Kanye elective congress in 2008 when the party leadership snubbed the candidates who had won the elections. 'All the sub committee members were elected without their input,' he says.
At the time, the current Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) president Gomolemo Motswaledi was elected the BDP secretary general. Few months in the job he was suspended for indiscipline and later expelled from the party by Khama.
About the 2013 primary elections he said if 7 125 members of the BDP in his constituency were not disfranchised he and majority of his councillors could have won. These 7 125 people are from six out of nine wards, that he feels are behind firmly him. Since the opposition politics is a different terrain, Pheto is of the feeling that it is incumbent upon voters to vote wisely their true representatives.
'It is not about resources. Most of the areas in the constituency are my strongholds.' As a parting shot he insists that there are a lot of political dynamics in the 2014 general elections, but the BDP could not be ruled out.
'But there is likely to be a hung Parliament. If Batswana could wake up to the call, they could punish the BDP,' says the man who is said to be in discussion with the Umbrella for Democratic Change.