Barata-Phati Snatch FCC
PATRICIA MAGANU
Staff Writer
| Tuesday November 17, 2009 00:00
Nyeku who snatched Ikageleng Ward from Sam Masunga beat two candidates, ex-mayor Ignatius Moswaane and James Kgalajwe to get the seat. Moswaane is a former ruling party councillor who won the last elections as an independent.
The result of the mayoral elections came as a shock because after the Baratha-Phati faction of the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) agreed on the candidates.
Both the new mayor and his deputy Stanely Masalila of Tatitown Ward are associated with the Barata-Phathi, which dominates the FCC now with 11 councillors. Masalila became deputy mayor after a tie-breaker between him and Kgalajwe. The six spoiled votes in the election for the deputy mayor caused laughter because of the messages written on them. Some of the spoilt ballots were blank, others had lines drawn on them.
One had a statement that read; 'democracy in action', another one read; 'No No No'. Others had statements that did not make sense.
In his acceptance speech, Nyeku said that he wanted the councillors to help him provide services to the people.
'I want to advise my fellow colleagues against party factions because we are here to serve the community that voted for us,' he said. He urged councillors to put their differences aside because they are in the council to serve the public. Masalila said that they will take over from where former mayor Honest Billy Buti has left. 'We will pick up where he has left not to say that we will strive to beat him but he will be with us guiding us where we need help,' he said. He stated that councillors should work together regardless of which political party they belong to.
'We will be councillors who are here to serve the community of Francistown not our parties,' he said. The opposition did not stand a chance in the mayoral elections because the contest was clearly a BDP struggle, between Barata-Phathi and A-Team factions.
The people who were rooting for Moswaane to win seemed to shift when he lost the mayoral seat to vote for Masalila rather than Kgalajwe. When Masalila won against Kgalajwe, through a tiebreaker, people shouted with joy and stood up to applaud the victory.