Khama to quell F/town region infighting
Chakalisa Dube | Friday April 7, 2017 17:31
The meeting will be held in Tonota. This will be the second time in less than a year that Khama has visited the region in a bid to disband factionalism. Khama was in the region in August last year where members complained about infighting.
Members even attributed the loss of the Phillip Matante East by-election to factionalism within the party. The region was accused of being behind in terms of registering members.
Some members of the BDP central committee among them the secretary general Botsalo Ntuane will accompany Khama.
Prominent BDP members in the Francistown region recently warned that the party risks losing the region to the opposition if factions do not come to an end.
Although the official information which is in the public domain suggest that Khama’s visit will be nothing more than just a routine visit, insiders at Tsholetsa House adopted a different position.
This week insiders said Khama’s main agenda will be to preach peace and unity in the region that has been rocked by infighting for sometime.
After Khama’s visit last year, tension between party members in the region started worsening until to-date. There have been instances where members allegedly decampaigned each other as they positioned themselves for the party primaries to attain candidacy for the 2019 general elections.
Just two weeks ago, democrats in Francistown also engaged in a fistfight at the elections to choose the region’s executive committee members. The fight was between supporters belonging to Vice President Mokgweetsi Masisi and cabinet minister Nonofo Molefhi who will be compete for the position of party chairman in July.
The elections were also marred by allegations of irregularities as both camps accused each other of using underhand tactics in an attempt to win the elections. Molefhi’s camp scooped all positions. Masisi’s team protested the elections.
Francistown South, West as well as East, which are three of five constituencies that make up the Francistown region, are the ones, which have been bitterly affected by factionalism.
Khama will later appoint a task team to investigate the regional elections. The team, led by former minister Gaotlhaetse Matlhabaphiri completed their task early this week. The contents of the reports were to be released this week.
The BDP Francistown region chairman Baemedi Medupi yesterday maintained that Khama’s main agenda will not be to quell infighting in the region.
“This will be a routine visit by the President. He will be in the region to check how it is (region) performing and its level of readiness for the 2019 general elections,” Medupi said. Medupi added: “The President visits party regions every quarter of the year regardless of the dynamics at that moment, hence I cannot say that he will be here to quell infighting.”