Defiant Gaolathe Addresses BMD Masses
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Monday May 22, 2017 18:00
Gaolathe and six others were suspended from the party last week.
He was speaking at Letlhabile English Medium Primary School Sunday inside a fully parked hall where the Gaolathe/Wynter Mmolotsi team came in large numbers. Gaolathe said, “This is not my movement but yours”.
“Don’t be shaken when we get expelled on Monday (today). Rather, I urge you members to be strong and stay focused because Bobonong congress will resolve this misunderstanding in the party.”
What shocked many was when Gaolathe asked members to call him “leloko Ndaba Gaolathe” instead of “the president”.
The soft-spoken Gaolathe’s tone yesterday changed when he gave words of encouragement to members.
He told the members that there is need to respect leaders and not to insult them in anyway.
“Even if people could insults me or say all bad things they like on radio or social media, I will not respond to such or go to radio stations to attack them. I was not brought up that way.
I have parents in the party, family and party members whom I am answerable to when I do right or wrong. A leader does not run to the media to announce party things when they are not going well, rather he calls members to tell them,” Gaolathe said.
Gaolathe said there is no one who would block him from attending the Bobonong congress.
If people would bring securing guards to block him, then he would find a way to address members while on the sidelines, he said.
“I will have to give the members feedback on all that I achieved and did not as president. I will use loudspeakers outside the fence to address the members,” he said. The suspended BMD president told members he sees no need of going to Court. This led to members singing a song: “Ke na le ngwana wa mosimane Ndaba ha o mo koba ke tsamaya le ene. Le seka la re re le lobetse”.
However, the Botswana Federation of Public, Parastatal Private Sector Unions (BOFEPUSU) labour secretary, Johnson Motshwarakgole said their trade Union supports Gaolathe and his team.
“We are not going to be neutral in this matter. We openly support Gaolathe. The BOFEPUSU will not let anyone attack opposition presidents.
Anyone who does not want progress in the BMD, should leave.
The BMD is not a party but a movement, it became very clear even at Ramotswa (at the youth congress),” Motshwarakgole said.