Senior BNF official defies party on Vision 2036
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Thursday October 22, 2015 12:02
The opposition party, which is a member of the coalition, Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), has barred members from sitting in the task force formulating the vision. The BNF took the decision at the party’s conference held at Goodhope in July. The rationale behind this, according to the party, was to keep the party from participating in government projects that do not yield positive results for Batswana.
On Monday many in the BNF were shocked to learn through national television, that Digwa, a BNF central committee member, was one of the members President Ian Khama recently announced for Vision 2036.
Digwa is the political secretary in the BNF and he was representing UDC as a parliamentary candidate for Boteti West constituency.
Digwa confirmed that he is a member of Vision 2036 but referred all questions to BNF spokesperson Moeti Mohwasa.
In response, Mohwasa said the position of BNF is that members should not participate in the task team and that the party position has not changed.
“If it is true that Digwa is in that committee then he is not representing BNF. The issue will be investigated and I hope he will also brief the central committee on the matter,” Mohwasa said. At the Goodhope conference BNF and UDC president Duma Boko said Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) years back was engaged in “some fancy dress parade”, later referred to, as Vision 2016.
“We told them then that everything contained in that document was a pious wish which they were not properly suited and equipped to realise. As we approach the year 2016 there is no one denying that we were right. They have failed on every pillar of Vision 2016,” Boko said.
He said the Government is again embarking on another waste of time and resources, claiming to revise Vision 2016 to come up with Vision 2036 “or some joke like that”.