BCP heads to Arone's backyard
Chakalisa Dube | Thursday July 28, 2016 14:25
A ceremony to honour Kavindama who died in June 2008 will be held on Sunday at his burial place in Kauxwi, a day after the party has officially opened its congress.
The BCP ordinary conference was supposed to have taken place during the President’s Day holidays but was postponed as it coincided with the Kelemogile ward by-election.
The BCP with the aid of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) emerged victorious against the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) at the by-election. Kavindama was the first to win the BCP parliamentary seat at the 1999 general elections. In 1998 he was among those who formed the BCP after they unceremoniously left the then troubled Botswana National Front (BNF).
He entered Parliament for the first time in 1984 while at BNF. He was MP until he lost unexpectedly to Victor Moruti during the 2004 general elections. At the time of his death he was confirmed as the BCP candidate for the 2009 general elections. The current Okavango Member of Parliament Bagalatia Aarone who recently defected to the BDP replaced him and won at the general elections.
“As a way of honouring Kavindama we will erect a tombstone at his grave.
He was an instrumental member of the BCP and erecting a tombstone on his grave will be a way of thanking him for the contributions he made to the BCP and the country in general,” said BCP publicity secretary Dithapelo Keorapetse in an interview.
Kavindama was also highly revered for bringing notable developments to his constituency during his tenure as MP.
The conference according to Keorapetse will also give members an update on the proposed talks with the UDC.
“I think we (BCP) have done our part in terms of preparing for the UDC talks. We have assembled our team of negotiators to start talks with the UDC.
“We are waiting for them (UDC) to conclude their problems before the talks can begin. The update at the congress will merely put a strong emphasis on the fact that we are ready for the talks,” Keorapetse said yesterday, adding that the party leadership will also welcome any advice from members on how it can proceed with the talks.
The BCP will also possibly have an extensive look at a by-election Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) it entered into with the UDC and see if it is effective.
The MoU dictates that the two parties should work with each other in case of a by-election.
“I however, do not think that anything will change with regards to the MoU because it has been effective since its inception. In fact it forms the basis of our coalition talks with the BCP,” Keorapetse said.
Since the signing of the MoU the UDC has won two of three recently held by-elections. The BCP win was at Kelemogile ward in Ramotswa while the UDC emerged victors at Phillip Matante in Francistown.
Keorapetse said that other discussions at the congress will be centred around BCP president Dumelang Saleshando’s speech, the secretary general’s report and treasurer’s report among others. Most of the activities of the congress will be on Saturday.