BMD Claims Motswaledi Belongs To Them
Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Monday May 14, 2018 18:00
Speaking at the party’s consultative meeting on Saturday held at the Big 5 Lodge in Mogoditshane, Mangole said that the BMD would celebrate the late Motswaledi’s life on July 30, 2018.
Motswaledi, the former BMD president died in a car crash on July 30, 2014, just a few months before the general elections.
Referring to Gaolathe Ndaba’s breakaway faction, which formed the Alliance for Progressives (AP), he issued a warning to them saying that they should stop claiming that Motswaledi is theirs and they are entitled to celebrate his life.
“Ope a seka a iphora. E kare go na le ketsaetsego. When Gomolemo Motswaledi left the BDP he joined the BMD after forming it and became its founding president.
“Gomolemo can never and will never join any political party that he never joined before his death. People should not claim him. On July 30, we should all stand up and celebrate our icon in the name of Gomolemo Motswaledi,” Mangole said.
He stated that they are aware that members of the AP are claiming that Motswaledi is one of them and that they would celebrate his life on July 30. However, Mangole said Motswaledi would have never joined the AP if he were still alive.
Meanwhile, when contacted for comment AP’s secretary general Dr Phenyo Butale responded that whatever the BMD are saying in relation to Motswaledi’s life is not worthy of their comment.
“Motswaledi stood for peace, the truth and justice. He was not affiliated to any colour and we will celebrate his life for what he stood for not colour affiliation.
“That is why his family members abandoned the party that he formed because it was hijacked and they know that it does not speak to what he stood for anymore, so I don’t think it’s worthy of our comment,” Butale said.
Members of the AP are of the view that Motswaledi would have supported their idea to form another party if he was still alive because it had shifted from its original ideologies.