Mangole Claims Ex-Soldiers Ruling BMD By Terror
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Monday June 27, 2016 15:00
“Some of our members were told things by these ex-soldiers which had made them live in fear. Some party members believe everything they hear from these ex-soldiers and now they want to check every member who applies for BMD membership whether he is genuine or not.
I don’t understand why we should be made to live in fear,” Mangole said during a press briefing on Friday at BMD office.
He said in their last national executive committee (NEC) meeting that was held on June 19, a contingent of the supporters led by a team of ex-soldiers thronged the party offices for the duration of the meeting.
“Their mandate, we are informed, was straight forward. Should an occasion have arisen to take a vote on any issue and the group loses the vote, a signal would have been sent for the contingency to invade the meeting room and cause havoc. It is our assertion that this deliberate, irresponsible and very unfortunate behaviour by this group should not be condoned,” he said.
The BMD secretary general said there is a group of NEC members who had vowed to make it their habit, to display unruly behaviour and render the NEC meetings untenable.
“I cannot disclose names of people who are leading the group because we hope that we would one day sit down and iron things out. We had approached different people and other organisation leaders who could help us to resolve our internal problems as NEC.
We strongly believe that things would go back to normal.” One of the BMD ex-soldiers and MP for Gabane-Mmankgodi, Pius Mokgware doubted Mangole’s assertion. “They could have revealed the names of those soldiers who are instilling fear on members and exactly what they had said to the members. Really, this shows lack of leadership skills and integrity for a leader to call a press conference and fail to state the facts and disclose names of people who he is accusing,” said Mokgware.
He said it shows that there is no truth in whatsoever the leadership is saying.
“I think it would be good if ex-soldiers could answer for themselves. People should not hide behind other people’s professions,” he said.
Mangole admitted that they had sent their party president Ndaba Gaolathe an sms to stop his presidential tours as they are being used to ridicule NEC members rather than promoting unity and growth for the movement.
“But the president has indicated that he cannot stop his planned tours. There is nothing that we can do, but we hope that we are going to reconcile and talk about the issue,” Mangole said.