UDC petitioners dodge deputy sheriff
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Friday February 12, 2021 16:50
This has also breaded divisions amongst some opposition main party members who met with the sheriff already. Just last week, the Botswana Congress Party-BCP attempted to raise funds for Dr Mpho Pheko, only to learn that petitioners have to pay as a group. otherwise, Pheko’s property has been attached including her house to cover the Court case costs.
So far, property for two members, that is Dr Pheko and Dr Micus Chimbombi have been auctioned. According to an inside source, the 15 petitioners had originally agreed to pay P40, 000 each to cover for legal costs. “The sheriff says some members are claiming they have no property that they can submit for auctioning. Yet others are trying to cheat the system by transferring their belongings to some people.
They do not want to cooperate. What is sad is, no member can pay their debt as an individual as the legal costs have to be paid collectively which means the sheriff might just go for a single member for the debt, says an inside source. Another source revealed that some in the UDC leadership are silent about the issue even if they are told to intervene in order to request others to pay the debt and also to cooperate with the sheriff. “The problem is that the UDC president, Duma Boko does not inform his committee members on how the matter could be solved.
We are still waiting for the report from the person who was the treasurer for funding raising on how much was raised. It is difficult this time around for constituencies to raise money, yes some can but party leaderships must be transparent to each other.
They should all put their differences aside and work together as a team in trying to solve the situation,” the source said. The UDC spokesperson, Moeti Mohwasa claimed ignorance that some members are not willing to participate in raising funds for their debt. “The UDC is not aware that there are some who are not willing to pay their debts arising from election petitions.
What we can say is that the UDC took a decision to get members to contribute towards meeting the legal costs through their constituencies.
The total is just under P570, 000. Each of the 57 constituencies is expected to raise P10, 000 each to meet these costs. The treasurer is still compiling a report and others are still contributing to meet these costs so it won’t be possible to give you a figure. As promised at our last briefing on money raised, we will continue to update the nation on what has been raised,” he said. Rather, UDC spokesperson said they appeal to all those who are committed to entrenchment of democracy in this country to donate to the initiative.
On the other hand, UDC vice president Dumelang Saleshando said he cannot comment on the issue and rather referred all questions to UDC president Duma Boko. Efforts to get hold of Boko were not successful.