So long Poloko Pitwane, so long former comrade
| Friday October 3, 2014 14:42
Poloko Pitwane must come out in the open and admit that the pressures of power imagination and dreams of spinning money ultimately got to him. I have been listening with that gesturing of shaking my head in disbelief as Poloko Pitwane went on to address the self and not the nation. Mr Editor, please allow me to refer to Poloko Pitwane as my former comrade for his he is no longer a comrade and must take off the blue beret of our movement. I am also angry at myself for blind following that has led me to this point of break down.
I know that comrades do not know the truth as yet and are likely to crucify me for this. But I know the bashing will not last long as the whole truth will eventually come in the open for as Nelson Mandela said “nothing is further from the truth”. Let me make it clear that my former comrade carried us through a revealing campaign and under his leadership, before he succumbed to the pressure from the UDC president Duma Boko, our movement had direction and purpose. I will narrate events below as I see to remain a servant of the youth and torch bearer of students.
On Thursday, at about 1430hrs, my former comrade had a meeting with four unidentified South African nationals at some building in Commerce Park. The gentlemen he met were all South African nationals and the contents of the meeting remain with only him. He never revealed to any of us at the movement the purpose of the meeting. I can confidently reveal that not even a single member of our movement’s leadership is privy to the on-goings of the meeting nor the agenda as one would naturally expect. We all simply thought they were his friends who would help us with campaign funds. We only learn now that those gentlemen came to recruit him to the UDC and were from some liberal institution in South Africa, associated with one of the local political parties affiliated to UDC.
Earlier that week, my former comrade and a few of us met with one Comrade Shokwe of the UDC based at Gaborone Bonnington North. A constituency my former comrade was supposed to contest for on behalf of our movement. I am privy to the details of the meeting as are other leaders of our movement whom we were asked to drop from the candidacy and in turn support Duma Boko and his UDC. This I saw as some form of political lunacy.
Riding on our displeasures against the ruling party one comrade Shokwe, as he identified himself with a point of authority having sent by the party and Duma Boko, narrated how it would be an embarrassment for the UDC should Boko lose elections since he is the president of the UDC. We were told at that meeting where five of us from the movement, including my former comrades, all understood the predicament facing the UDC but we were at the same time not willing to surrender our candidacy just to save the UDC face. Nonetheless, we are not in bed with the UDC, except for my former comrade as I point out herein his closed meetings with friends of our competitors.
We were told that the UDC will be taking over government post-2014 and that my former comrade will be made a specially elected Member of Parliament by Duma Boko as he will be president of the country. A lot was said, and for the sake of time I will not go into details unless provoked.
The events leading to the deadline of payments and finalisation of registration documents for general elections candidates only came back to my memory when I sat at home, alone to really think hard about this matter as to why the Independent Electoral Commission would want to ‘deliberately sabotage us’ as my former comrade wants the nation to believe. I observed that there was everything against the IEC’s credibility and everything in favour of the UDC shall that be the case. I then recalled the many meetings that we have been having both with BDP, UDC and BCP representatives. This recollection of thoughts informs my conclusions herein.
What I clearly recall was a normal route of recruitment exercise by both BCP and the BDP which I must point out that it never irked me the wrong way. It actually inspired me that we were meaningful and being taken seriously. But what disturbed me to this day is all the memory recollections of the UDC meetings with us where we were promised all kinds of sugar candy mountains should we vacate the candidacy for Duma Boko.
I must point out that the UDC Council candidate of Block 6 was also at one of the initial meetings were it was proposed that she steps down as a council candidate for Block six to pave way for my former comrade. We flatly refused as we saw it as an insult to our movement. We were to learn later that the woman, whose name I forget, was not necessarily in agreement but was coerced by the UDC activists in the constituency. Lucky we had refused, we were going to be a part of the BNF never ending wars.
In all our meetings and encounters with what seemed to be UDC financiers, the issue has always been that we will embarrass the UDC and its leader if he does not win and that we will be responsible for such. The issue has never been about nation building or country development. The issue was about Duma Boko the person. On several occasions those we met only fell short of asking us to name the price. It wasthefirst time that I saw the seriousness of the matter: That we were being asked to sell our souls for money. I recall at one of these soul selling meetings, my former comrade looked flatly confused. We were then as a movement experiencing a huge lack of financial muscle and we were beginning to realise that money is a factor in winning elections.
What my former comrade has been telling the media and the nation is somehow different from what exactly transpired on the fateful day when our movement could not finish the IEC due processes in time. It is not true that we did not have enough numbers to endorse my former comrade as a candidate. Our movement has many excited students who would have easily filled the IEC offices to full capacity. We had enough people.
Our blind following of my former comrade was too strong that in his delaying tactics to register as a candidate we didn’t pick any suspicious tendencies. I can confidently say it was deliberately orchestrated by my former comrade and not by IEC as he wants everyone to believe. Looking back at the events of that fateful day, it does not make sense at all. The only thing that makes sense is that my former comrade deliberately stalled until a few minutes towards the last hour.
My conclusion is very basic that my former comrade sold us off, those of us who fought with and for him during all his trials and tribulations as Limkokwing SRC president. He sold us, those who stood by him throughout this campaign. He sold us for a few hundreds of thousands and hope for a specially elected Member of Parliament seat.
I am also beginning to suspect that those of our comrades who were supposed to stand for council seats have also got their share of the loot and therefore they pulled out. Let me make it clear that my former comrade is not being honest when he says that our two former council candidates pulled out of the race as they had to drop the processes they were doing to be able to be among the needed number at IEC for my former comrade’s candidacy. It is all a lie. On that fateful day, those two former candidates had already made it clear and known to our movement that they were no longer standing and they cited that the reasons were personal. I was equally shocked at the press conference to hear my former comrade saying something else very contrary to truth.
We as a movement never met nor agreed on any urgent court application being mentioned by my former comrade. We also never met and agree to collect voter registration cards for our supporters. That would be irresponsible. Why would we collect voter registration cards if we intend on going to court?
We can only advice the people to vote wisely and not advise them to boycott an election. We never agreed that we will burn the voter registration cards outside the IEC offices, for we know it is criminal, immoral and an act of irresponsibility. My former comrade is just blowing hot and cold. He is in a tight corner. He is not himself- it is the loot and a promise of parliament talking, not him. So long my former comrade, so long.
I shall patiently wait for my former comrade to tell the nation the whole truth. I shall also wait for my former comrade to tell me that these meetings and conversations that I mention here did not take place. I shall wait for my former comrade to deny that he is enjoying the loot. I shall wait for my former comrade to deny that he has been promised by the UDC a special elected Member of Parliament seat. I shall wait for my former comrade to deny that he deliberately stalled to register as a candidate. I shall patiently wait for my former comrade to deny that he was asked to contest for the Block six council seat.
Yours in Student Struggle,
Martin Saddam Moagi
Limkokwing University of Creative
Technology moagisaddam@gmail.com