Knives Out For Maele
Innocent Selatlhwa | Monday December 17, 2018 15:28
Amongst the members are Pinny Morupisi, who is wife to Permanent Secretary to the President and the man he defeated during the party’s primary elections, Sethabelo Modukanele.
The duo along with six other BDP members wrote a letter to the party’s secretary general, Mpho Balopi, complaining about Maele’s behaviour at a Kgotla meeting addressed by former president, Ian Khama, at Moremi on November 16, 2018.
Maele was giving a vote of thanks at the meeting where he used the opportunity to pledge his constituents’ and his allegiance to their Kgosikgolo Khama and said they would stand by him no matter what. To the concerned party members, Maele ventured off from his given mandate and planted seeds of division in the BDP.
“The words were also contemptuous of and ridiculed the current President and the entire Cabinet and or government. It did so by claiming that they disowned the former president after assisting them to be what they are today,” the letter read.
The six argue in the letter that the utterances contravene the BDP’s general code of conduct as enshrined in the party’s constitution. They state that Maele was sowing seeds of discord in the party using regionalism, tribalism and factionalism.
They further state that Maele behaved in a manner calculated to bring the party’s name into disrepute and also washed BDP’s dirty linen in public.
They state that the utterances were made in a wrong forum being a Kgotla meeting where it was impossible for the party members to respond to and rebut the charges he made.
“In view of all the above we write to request that the appropriate structures take appropriate action against the MP. He has promoted entrenched factionalism within members of the constituency,” the letter further reads.
Modukanele confirmed having been part of those who authored a letter complaining about Maele’s conduct toward the party. Quizzed on whether they got a response, he said he was not in a position to know if the party had already responded.
Balopi could not be dragged into discussing the matter. He referred this reporter to the executive secretary, Lesedi Dintwe, who said they had not received the letter.
Maele could not be reached for comment as he was said to be out of the country.