BDP tries to quell trouble in F/town East
Chakalisa Dube | Thursday June 26, 2014 14:34
The BDP has not known peace in the constituency ever since Honest Buti Billy beat Foreign Affairs Minister Phandu Skelemani in the primaries last year. It is understood that the BDP has roped in members of the branch committee, regional committee and ordinary party members to accompany the elders for the meeting. “The purpose of the meeting will be to try to promote peace between the party members (belonging to Skelemani and Billy factions) in the constituency,” a source said. It is reported that the relationship between the two men and their campaign team has reached an all-time low after the fiercely contested primaries.
It is not clear how the two fell out, but it is alleged that Billy is not involving Skelemani’s supporters in his campaigns. “Those who supported Skelemani are bitter about the way Billy has been treating them. They have even vowed that they will vote for the opposition at the general elections. Billy is not involving them in campaign meetings and they do not form part of the campaign team,” said a source.
The source said the fighting started before the primary elections with Billy’s supporters allegedly using vulgar language against Skelemani during campaigns.
Billy and Skelemani met the party council of elders in Gaborone early last week in a reconciliation meeting. At the meeting, the two men reportedly agreed to work in harmony for the good of the party and set aside their differences. The poor relationship between the two men has led to the postponement of Billy’s launch, which was supposed to be tomorrow.
The launch has now been postponed to July 26. Meanwhile Skelemani has denied that there is a rift between him and Billy. He told Mmegi yesterday that he is not aware about claims that Billy is sabotaging his supporters.
But Billy readily admits that they have held a reconciliation meeting with the council of elders. “I however cannot discuss the contents of the meeting with the media,” he said.
He refused to explain why his launch has been moved to next month. He said that he is in the dark about the scheduled July 5 visit by the party council of elders. Billy denied that his team was using expletives towards Skelemani.
He said he has organised retreats to try to bring peace to the constituency but Skelemani’s side has snubbed him.
BDP executive Secretary Sechele Sechele said last week’s reconciliation meeting was an internal affair that cannot be discussed with the media.