CDC opposition councillors embarrass Tsogwane
Bonte Seepi | Thursday March 24, 2016 11:44
They refused to go out of the council chambers to allow Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) members to go into a caucus with the minister, who is also a Member of Parliament (MP) for Boteti West.
Tsogwane was forced to go with the CDC chairman, Peter Williams, to his office as the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) and Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) councillors denied them a chance to caucus during the full council meeting.
The council started later than its usual time of 9am awaiting the arrival of the minister. When he finally did, the council chairman ushered him in an unusual way without summoning the councillors to stand up to welcome the minister.
Williams also got into the council chambers without his official chain and immediately when he got to his seat he excused the opposition councillors, journalists, government employees and the public from the council chambers.
He said, “Opposition councillors, journalists, all the public employees and the entire public can you please wait for us outside the council.”
A few opposition councillors, the public and public employees immediately got out of the chambers while the rest remained. The majority of opposition councillors refused to go out as they felt they were being undermined and said they were not informed to give the BDP space and time to caucus in a humble manner.
Some BDP councillors even supported the opposition saying they were being disrespected.
Williams threatened to call the police officers as the councillors disobeyed his orders. But none of them budged.They argued that without his chain of office, the chairman did not have any powers to command them.
UDC councillor, Charles Mabjeng said: “Opposition parties are being disrespected and undermined. The chairman is not even begging us to leave in a humble manner. He is being rude to us and expects us to follow his instructions when he isn’t even putting on his official chain.”
Another councillor, George Makhura of the BCP also supported Mabjeng saying that the BDP was being disrespectful to them.
The caucus was cancelled and Williams and Tsogwane were forced to return to the office, and later on they came back for the council sitting.
Tsogwane’s disappointment was clear to see although he did not say anything.
Before he could address the councillors, the council chairman said what they had done was shameful.
“It was a shame that we couldn’t caucus today, although we normally do that without any problems. What happened today came as a surprise and I did not like it at all, but I believe honourable councillors will correct themselves,” said Williams.
Tsogwane informed the councillors that it was not on his schedule to come and address them, but rather was called for some urgent issues at the council.
However, the minister explained to the councillors how important it was to run the council in the right manner.
He said even in Parliament, they follow parliamentary laws when discussing issues.
“We have got instruments that guide us, therefore you should also understand the council mandate. You have to follow Councillor’s Code of Conduct, the Local Government Act and other laws guiding proceedings of the council.
This will avoid friction between the administrative process and the political process,” explained Tsogwane.
Tsogwane reminded councillors that whatever they say in the council should be of public interest not their personal views. He told councillors that their faces show that there is indeed a lot of problems amongst them, saying even the way they conduct themselves reflects that they do not work well together.He said the council is an institution similar to a parastatal which has a chief executive.
He said as such the council chairman should be the head. He said what councillors did earlier on was unprofessional as they ignored what their leader was requesting them to do.