Khama laughs off Boko assassination reports
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Tuesday May 13, 2014 11:32
TATI SIDING: The leader of the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), President Ian Khama has laughed off talk that his government has put out a hit on the president of Botswana National Front (BNF) Duma Boko and other opposition leaders.Speaking during the launch of the BDP Tati East candidate and MP Samson Moyo Guma in Tati Siding on Sunday, Khama wondered why he would want to kill his opponents.
“There is no president of this country who has jailed or killed anyone from the opposition. I will never do that. The BDP is not under threat from anyone, so why would I kill members of the opposition? These (killings) things happen only in countries where there is no tolerance of the opposition but in Botswana there is tolerance of the opposition.
“I would rather kill a snake or scorpion not Boko or any opposition member because I don’t fear any of them.
Tomorrow some opposition members will be involved in an accident or even having a running stomach, and they will say that it is Khama and the DIS who are responsible for such. There is no credibility in accusations made by opposition against me. The opposition is very weak,” he said to the applause of hordes of BDP faithful who attended the event.
During the launch of Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) candidate for Gabane-Mankgodi, Major General Pius Mokgware, it was alleged that the agents of the Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) planned eliminating opposition leaders, and Boko, who was also the leader of the opposition coalition, was number one on the hit list.
To rapturous applause from the BDP faithful, Khama’s response was: “Opposition members exhibit poor leadership styles. Their campaigns are always riddled with lies, deception and insults. They can’t govern the country with such qualities”. Khama cautioned that assassination reports tarnished the image of the country.
“When opposition members publicise false assassination reports, it draws the attention of the international media and when such stories are reported abroad they will appear to be true and hence tarnish the image of the country. Opposition members are irresponsible and unpatriotic,” he said.
The BDP secretary general Mpho Balopi also used the occasion to repeat his earlier allegations that Boko sought to join the BDP.
“I am surprised by the assassination reports. Boko visited the Office of the President twice last year proposing to join the party. But when we told him to go and think thoroughly before making a final decision, he never returned. Now he is talking assassination,” he said.
The event was held in the same village where Khama publicly forgave Guma more than two years ago for ditching the party in 2010 to co-establish the Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD).
Khama also shot down speculation that the party will, through a motion of no confidence oust the speaker of Parliament Margaret Nasha and her deputy Pono Moatlhodi in the July parliamentary sitting.
The MP for Tonota, Moatlhodi decamped from the BDP to the BNF recently, while Nasha’s book criticised the ruling party and Khama.
“We are not a party that is after revenge. We will not table such a stupid motion. If Moatlhodi is an honourable man, he is the one who can resign because he was voted into that position by the BDP MPs who are a majority in Parliament,” he said.
He reiterated the party stance that it would not take back members of the BDP who defected to the opposition.
“People also have to learn that political office is not a permanent and pensionable job. There will be time when you will be winning and at your peak and moment when you will be defeated.
“When you lose, you should accept defeat instead of quitting the party or making excuses,” Khama said, in reference to party members who left the party after losing primaries, most notably MPs Moatlhodi and Moeng Pheto.
The former BDP chairman Guma cautioned party members against politics of mudslinging. “Our campaign should focus on what we can offer to Batswana not politics of character assassination because it does not offer any solution to the plight of voters,” he said before assuring the party that Tati East will do well in the general elections late this year. Meanwhile Boko is expected to issue a statement, today, trashing the ‘nonsense’ that BDP claims he met Khama to apply for party membership.
Boko told Mmegi yesterday that, “This is BDP propaganda with an intention to tarnish my name. I’ll issue a brief statement tomorrow trashing this nonsense”.
Boko wondered why he would join a “discredited party”, saying no one would want to join the BDP as there was nothing enticing in it.
Boko has challenged Balopi to bring proof that he had indeed met Khama twice to ask for the BDP membership.
“I do not think BDP is a party that I can opt to join in life. I have never had any interest in the ruling party,” he said.
UDC/BNF spokesperson Moeti Mohwasa cautioned their members not to panic but to wait for their leader’s statement to clarify the issue. “We just heard those allegations from the radio and we do not take them seriously. For now I can only assure our members to be calm and wait for statement from the president,” Mohwasa said.