Five vie for BCP secretary generalship
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Friday May 21, 2021 18:00
The five members are Moncho Moncho, Morwadi Morwadi, Goretetse Kekgonegile, Akanyang Letsweletse and Dr Never Tshabang. However, the real contest seems to be amongst Moncho, Kekgonegile and Tshabang as other contestants do not seem to have the aura and high profile enjoyed by the three. The BCP goes for its virtual congress in July this year.
“I have decided to avail myself for the SG position of the BCP, with one main objective which is to use the powerful position to help transform the BCP into the country’s premier political force, chiefly on the back of superior organisational capacity and ideas. The moment is especially exceptionally favourable,” Moncho revealed in an interview this week.
He added that they have a critical mass of competent legislators who are excelling in Parliament. Therefore, he said they need an SG with good organisational and leadership skills and a refined sense of strategy.
He also indicated that the BCP needs an SG who can more efficiently turn the stellar performance of their legislators into membership and support for the party. He added the party secretariat, secretary general and deputy secretary general, should mobilise this capacity to more effectively support the ideation process within the party. Moncho said he proposes a seven-point plan to drive the BCP’s charge towards becoming the country’s premier political force and anchoring a winning coalition in 2024. In addition, he said the BCP should build effective principled and purposeful coalitions to achieve its mission and objectives.
“The BCP should have priorities on labour issues, business issues, international organisations such as Progressive Alliance, Women’s Empowerment and it should aim for equal representation for women at all levels within the BCP in the shortest possible time,” he said.
For his part Kekgonegile, who is a social worker by profession, trade unionist and also MP for Maun East, said together with the lobby list that he is under which is led by Taolo Lucas, they believe in reviving party structures. Kekgonegile stated they also believe in membership recruitment and retention, collaboration, partnerships and coalition building, political education and policy development.
“With different experiences I have and the kind of jobs I was doing, I strongly believe that I can do better in that post. The party secretariat needs a hard worker and I believe I am the one,” he said. “In the union as a president, I was doing mobilisation and leading with the recruitment drive of membership. I can handle both pressures from the MP seat together with the SG one. This position needs someone who is in Parliament to advocate for our party policies.” He added that they believe in taking the party to the people.
Another contestant, Morwadi said his intention is to rebrand the BCP if voted for the position of SG. “Time and again, the party has to come up with strategies that could help it to grow. We can achieve that if we introspect as the organisation so that we know our weaknesses and strong areas for us to improve. I believe in consolidation also, so that we have a meaningful effort or contribution even within Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC). We have contributed a lot in the UDC and therefore, we should continue to grow.
I believe that the BCP should continue to work with other parties as it had been doing. I wish some MPs were contesting for some positions since some had won their constituencies on marginal numbers rather they should focus on retaining those constituencies.
Only positions such as president and vice president are not too demanding. This position requires one to be a ground soldier,” Morwadi said in an interview. Other contenders, legislator Tshabang and party operative Letsweletse confirmed this week that they are in the race.