GCC denies BCP allegations over posters
Oarabile Mosikare | Thursday August 14, 2014 12:43
This comes after the BCP served the GCC with court papers over the issue of campaign posters advertisement on the street poles. The BCP chairperson Motsei Madisa-Rapelana recently deposed an affidavit in support of an application for a declaration that the GCC’s conduct towards the BCP infringes upon its right under Section 3 of the Constitution of Botswana.
This in particular, the right to equal protection of the law and that the GCC action must be declared unlawful and interdicted from acting in this manner. In its court papers, the GCC denies that it has violated the applicant’s fundamental rights and freedoms enshrined under Section 3 (A) of the Botswana Constitution.
The council also accused the BCP and its president Dumelang Saleshando of making false accusations through the media. “This is a figment of the applicant’s imagination. The respondent has no interest in targeting and singling out the applicant,” reads the affidavit of the town clerk Mpho Mathe.
She also charged that the opposition’s conduct influenced lawlessness as political parties began to follow suit as they proceeded to advertise without seeking permission of the respondent.
“This resulted in untidy, unsystematic and haphazard placement of placards. The situation is now out of control as the respondent has failed to enlist the assistance of the court in acquiring a speedy order in the urgent application. The applicant was then with a can of worms in his hands,” she stated.
The GCC says it is a travesty of justice for the applicant to expect to violate the law with impunity and then seek to employ legal gymnastics in its attempt to evade suffering the consequences of this inconsideration of the law. Mathe also denied accusations of favoritism and special treatment. He pointed out that Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) parliamentary candidate for Gaborone Central, Rupert Hambira, applied for and was granted permission to advertise.
He said Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) parliamentary candidate, the late Gomolemo Motswaledi, had also not followed the correct procedure and a letter had already been prepared against him. However, the letter was not dispatched to Motswaledi due to the intervention of the central government which took place before the letter was served.
Mathe also accused the BCP of searching for publicity in a wrong way. “That it should seek to place His Excellency [President Ian Khama] as an equal to its president when it comes to court litigation clearly demonstrates the poverty of advice it receives with regard to that point. I have been advised by respondent attorneys that the president cannot be sued in his personal capacity as is seemingly being argued by the applicants.”