BCP choir sets conference alight with anti-Khama sentiment
Ryder Gabathuse | Friday July 21, 2017 15:44
It was this song and dance that preceded the many speeches from across the party’s organs and fraternal organisations. The lyrics of the youthful choir communicated a message about the Khama family and its insensitivity, brutality and disregard for the law. “Lelwapa le la ga Khama le batho le setlhogo…Le ikgagapeletse dilo le senyeditse Batswana...Lelwapa le, le setlhogo (This Khama family is cruel. It has unfairly taken too much from Batswana. It has done harm to Batswana.
This family is cruel),” went the political lyrics that sent hundreds of BCP diehards berserk. As the choir repeated this song, the hall sang along as majority of the people joined dancing the morning away. It was a morning the BCP took charge to rubbish the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) and in particular the Khama family for its failures.
The same song listed disappointedly how the Khama family through its greediness has taken vast pieces of land when majority of people do not have land. The song listed amongst others, Ruretse, Khawa, Phakalane, Mosu Lodge, Khama Rhino Sanctuary and amongst the spaces taken by the Khama family. Although the message was loud and clear, it was perhaps how it was communicated that it left many asking for some more.
The choir did not show any respect for the ruling elite, the Khama family in particular. Just as the anti Khama sentiment was quickly sinking into the hearts of many, the choir shifted to the bloody developments at Bobonong where the opposition Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) held its elective congress.
The BCP conference official opening was done last Sunday and it was preceded by a Women’s Wing conference at the same venue. On a Sunday, already the BCP choir had composed a song on the bloody divisive BMD congress that saw the party’s two main factions holding separate elective congresses after blood was let. “Tsa Bobonong, di seka tsa le tshwenya… Bana ba motho ba a xavana, ba boa ba itshwarelana.
Go kgoberega ga metsi ke go itsheka ga one (Bobonong events should not bother you. Siblings do fight and forgive each other. Muddied water does settle).” It was how this choir presented the BMD situation that it gripped the attention of the BCP delegates forcing them to also sing along.
The choir simply set the stage for BCP president Dumelang Saleshando whose job was duly simplified. When he finally took up to the podium, the party observed a moment of silence in honour of the fallen political heroes like former president Sir Ketumile Masire and Botswana National Front’s (BNF) late former ideologue, Dr Elmon Tafa.
He hailed Francistown for making history by electing Dr Habaudi Hobona as the first opposition woman MP to the National Assembly followed by the BNF’s late Same Bathobakae. He said the BCP has been following issues of national interest that the party has been contemplating taking to the courts of law such as the sale of the national carrier Air Botswana, sale of Morupule B power plant, self-inflicted harm medical policy and construction work at Mosu.
The BCP president explained that it’s important for the party to pursue the cases to safeguard the public goods against wanton looting. He cited the amendment of the retired presidents pension law as a firm confirmation that the appetite by the BDP leadership to grab what they can get from state coffers is unlimited.
Noting that court cases are expensive to pursue, Saleshando indicated that the party is in the process of exploring opportunities for collaboration with organisations that share the BCP concern about the issues they want to pursue. The BCP will also be appealing to the business community as well as the larger public to contribute financially for the court cases.
“To this end, we have opened an account with Rahim Khan attorneys for public contributions and pledge to fully account to the public for the funds they will hopefully contribute,” Saleshando said. He would later set the conference alight when he related a story about the Okavango constituents rejecting the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), which they said was akin to the electricity-dispensing machine without the paperwork.