Masogo assault case: Tip of the political iceberg
Chakalisa Dube | Friday March 17, 2017 17:05
Last weekend’s BDP bloody regional congress held at the Donga Junior Secondary School brought the party’s main factions, led by Vice President and incumbent BDP chairperson, Mokgweetsi Masisi and his challenger, Cabinet minister, Nonofo Molefhi face-to-face.
As the congress was about electing delegates to the BDP July elective congress to be held in Tonota, the Masisi/Molefhi factions took advantage to flaunt their strengths.
In the process, three Donga JSS chairs and two tables were smashed during a melee as three men associated with Moswaane laid into Masogo. The latter insisted yesterday that it was Moswaane’s protégés who deliberately assaulted him so that he could not be listened to after lodging a complaint that Monarch North delegates to the congress were not properly elected.
Even though Moswaane yesterday distanced himself from Masogo’s assailants, Masogo insisted the MP knew about the assault, describing him as the ‘architect’ of the fracas.
“It’s Moswaane’s men who assaulted me. The police are looking for them now after Moswaane promised to hand them over to the police since they were still attending the congress. They have since disappeared into thin air,” Masogo explained.
The free-spirited Masogo suspected that Moswaane had hidden his assailants as a way of trying to weaken his case. “Look, when the police tried to detain my assailants, Moswaane pleaded that they were delegates and that he will produce them when needed to answer for their misdeeds. I didn’t fight them, they actually assaulted me,” Masogo insisted.
He claimed to have been assaulted with slaps, chairs and desks. He acknowledged that he was not a delegate, but had petitioned the branch that delegates from Monarch North ward were not given a chance to hold proper elections.
Now that the branch had ignored his request, he took the matter up with the region, which happened on the floor of the regional congress last Saturday. He further dismissed accusations that he misbehaved at the congress because he was drunk.
“I had just returned from a church meeting and I was sober although I am not a teetotaler,” he protested.
Masogo further argued that the region could have taken action against him if at any stage he was drunk and disrupting its business. But the regional committee never raised a complaint against his conduct.
“You must remember that from Monarch North, we were never given an opportunity to be heard. So, we have petitioned the delegates,” said Masogo, insisting that the source of their altercations is based on the fact that he was a Masisi ally, and Moswaane and his team who are Molefhi allies, want to annihilate them.
On the other hand, Moswaane dismissed Masogo as a member of a team hell-bent on discrediting him and his own team.
Responding to accusations that people who assaulted Masogo were his protégés, Moswaane described the assailants as individuals and that if they were associated with him, he could have engaged them, which he claimed he did not do.
“Otto was not a delegate at that meeting. Because of his persistent disorderly behaviour, the regional meeting had to delay for about two hours. You could see that he was really up to something,” Moswaane said, insisting that Masogo was not beaten.
What he witnessed, he argued, was that the complainant was requested to leave the congress and when he refused, some youth had to escort him out of the hall applying, “maximum force” to remove him.
Moswaane said Masogo was advised to report the purported assault to the police and the region at the insistence of some of the congress losers he could not name. Now, Moswaane is of the view that the regional committee should charge Masogo for disrupting the weekend congress.
“I will write a letter to the regional committee recommending action against Masogo because in my honest opinion, he disrespected the region and his conduct was purely disruptive,” alleged Moswaane, who even claimed Masogo behaved like he was bigger than everybody else.
Moswaane said once Masogo was removed from the hall, things went on smoothly. He alleged Masogo “appeared very tired, uncooperative and talkative”. Moswaane also said Masogo attended a meeting that he was not eligible to attend.
BDP secretary general, Botsalo Ntuane made a commitment in a previous interview that once the party received a complaint from Masogo, they will take appropriate action.
In the previous interview, Ntuane had said: “ I am aware that during accreditation, there was a misunderstanding over delegates from one ward in Francistown West. I do not have all the details, but apparently that led to a scuffle which resulted in the police being called.”
Within the BDP corridors, Masogo’s case is most unlikely dead as he might get a fair hearing. His efforts at seeking redress could simply be dismissed as a factional cry as already Moswaane accuses him of meddling.
In the words of Moswaane who calls himself the political head of Francistown West and not an intruder, Masogo is simply a meddler who is failing to meet him. “I treat him (Masogo) like a political mercenary working for some people,” he said without elaborating.