Motshwarakgole urges Gantsi to vote UDC
Leinanyana Tsiane | Tuesday October 21, 2014 17:39
Addressing a packed UDC star rally in Gantsi over the weekend.
Motshwarakgole said the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) government should be punished for its greediness. He pointed to the civil servants’ strike of 2011, during which President Ian Khama said he would not care if the civil servants went on strike for five years.
“That was a clear case of a leader who does not put the interest of workers first. Can you still vote for people like that?” he asked rhetorically.
The trade union firebrand said people should not be confused by the apparent differences among some BOFEPUSO affiliates. As BOFEPUSO, they were not UDC members but they were only calling for workers to vote for UDC in order to change government.
Motshwarakgole said the reasons his union believed the UDC should be voted, was because it heeded the unions’ request for the opposition to unite in order to unseat the ruling BDP. To that extend they would not support the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) as its refusal to join other opposition parties could potentially help the BDP win.
“BCP duly assisted to release a lion that we had caged so you have to punish BCP for that,” he added.
Turning on the BDP long time service parliamentarian, Motshwarakgole said voting Johnnie Swartz would be a waste of time, as he had never tabled a single motion in Parliament.
“Gantsi has plenty of raw materials from the cattle industry but the youth in this area still remain poor because their jobs have been transferred to other countries,” he said.
He urged UDC members to remain united to ensure victory in the Friday poll. Meanwhile a former councilor of the ruling BDP was chased out of the Rural Administration Centre polling station in Gantsi for campaigning while voting was on.
This happened during the Saturday poll for public sector workers who would be on duty during the voting day.
An independent council candidate Shane Kebadile who saw the BDP member campaigning alerted the presiding officer who then asked the man to leave the polling station.
Kebadile said he was disappointed that such behavior was coming from a former councilor and campaign manager of the competing candidate.
“This has the potential to influence violence in elections and must be strongly discouraged.
I saw him campaign and I told the presiding officer who took action promptly and asked the man to leave the polling station,” said Kebadile. Last Saturday poll in the area went well in the area, principal elections officer Joseph Diswai.