BOFEPUSU De-campaigns Masisi

Spira Tlhankane | Monday May 11, 2015 17:47

The ruling party goes for an electoral congress July, where Masisi and five other candidates are in a hot contest for the number two position.

The powerful public sector federation, which has twice but failed to de-campaign Masisi, is going all out to ensure that the VP does not assume the powerful position in the BDP.  BOFEPUSO first went for Masisi’s head in 2013, asking the BDP die hards not to vote him in the 2013 primaries, and also in the 2014 general elections.

During a press conference on Friday, Johnson Motshwarakgole, the BOFEPUSU Labour Secretary of said Masisi had been leading attacks on trade unions, and should therefore be denied the chance to be the next president of Botswana.

“We will rage war and make sure that Masisi doesn’t win the BDP chairmanship,” he said. Motshwarakgole added that as BOFEPUSU they fear that the worst government is yet to come if BDP Masisi wins. He said Masisi would continue with the oppression of trade unions and public workers if he lays his hands on the chairmanship.

“We are now looking beyond 2019, as trade unions we must help in choosing our future leader and Masisi is not a good leader, he is dangerous,” he said. Motshwarakgole said Masisi got lucky in the 2013 BDP primary elections because he “cheated” but this time around they would engage BDP members to look at this carefully. “We didn’t feel defeated but we are now stronger than ever and Masisi is the only man we are concerned about for now,” he said.  The veteran unionist said some of their members are in the BDP therefore they should help de-campaign Masisi and limit him to this term only.