BCP postpones women's, youth congresses

Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Friday November 23, 2018 13:12

The decision was made at a party executive committee meeting on Thursday.

This came as a shock to some women who were ready to vote for their leadership.  The women’s league committee was supposed to have voted in their new committee last Saturday.

According to a source, some  reasons for postponing the congress were that the women’s league committee has no mandate and members do not form a quorum. The congress was supposed to be held in Maun.

 “The national executive committee had information that the committee has not been meeting and they met only when they wanted to prepare for the congress.  “Their mandate expired in February. Again a majority of members who were sitting on it resigned, while two left the party.

“Also, there is a procedure that needs to be followed when there is an elective congress, but the women’s league committee has failed to follow it when the executive committee wanted proof on the matter,” the source said.

Another source said proper preparation for the congress was not done since accommodation for delegates was not properly arranged for.

 The source said the league did not even have election officers who would conduct elections.

 However, the BCP women’s league president, Daisy Bathusi said the current committee mandate expired in May and the party central committee extended it by six months.

“The reason why our mandate was extended was due to party primary elections and voter registration. 

“It was impossible to hold congress(es) at that time. The decision to postpone our congress was done in the best interest of the party.

“I cannot divulge the reasons because party the central committee has to be briefed first. The central committee is meeting on December 1, 2018,” Bathusi said. She said the postponement negatively impacted their committee because they had already paid for some of the things.

 Bathusi admitted that her committee had challenges, but they were able to meet and they usually formed a quorum.

“Our committee consists of 15 members and we lost three of them, but we managed to co-opt others,” she said.