BDP employee sacked over new Bulela Ditswe registration scandal
Ryder Gabathuse | Friday January 19, 2018 16:45
Mmegi has learnt that just like in preparations for the 2014 general elections, a long serving party employee in the BDP secretariat was recently sacked for allegedly undertaking unlawful member registration.
The woman was caught in the middle of the Molepolole North battles for the registration of members. There is a fierce battle for the constituency particularly between former Cabinet minister, Gaotlhaetse Matlhabaphiri who is on a comeback trail, and another contestant Oarabile Regoeng. Botsalo Rabogadi is another candidate vying for the party ticket in the constituency.
Allegations are that officer (name withheld) was implicated in the Molepolole North registration books saga. Following a lengthy disciplinary hearing after the matter was reported to her superiors, the employee was fired from work.
Although details of the scandal are very sketchy, in Molepolole North it is generally believed that the main plan was to cook the registration books so that they could favour one candidate at the expense of others. Former Molepolole North treasurer, Magdeline Mokachea tells it all about the bogus registration in their area. She said they witnessed some people messing up the party registration books in support of certain candidates.
“Our initial registration process was okay, but when our committee’s time expired, the incoming committee went as far as the party Tsholetsa House, which is the administrative hub and applied their ‘ntlodisa molatswana’ tricks until we moved in and queried the fraudulent registration,” Mokachea said. She said they found it strange when some books were literally disowned by the same people who facilitated their registration.
The matter was reported to the BDP secretariat, leading to the intervention of the central committee.
“As the old committee we were able to follow up the rightful steps to lodge a complaint and this matter of bogus registration is currently in the hands of the party leadership and heads might continue to roll where applicable starting from the head office where the registration is done,” she told Mmegi this week.
In 2014 President Ian Khama disqualified Bonnington South parliamentary candidate, Christian Nthuba who stood against Botsalo Ntuane from contesting the party primaries after he (Nthuba) was implicated in a registration scandal alongside some members of the party secretariat.
Caught in the scandal was Nthuba’s ally, the then party chairman, Samson Moyo Guma, who would shortly resign from the chairmanship of the BDP although he (Guma) had denied it had to do with the scandal.
Quizzed this week if the reasons for the party employee’s sacking was related to the registration scandal, BDP chairman for communications and international relations, Thapelo Pabalinga insisted that the matter is simply employer/employee issue and therefore would not discuss it with the media.