BPP Suspends Gudu, Kuchwe
Chakalisa Dube | Monday November 27, 2017 15:56
The suspensions were effected on Saturday during a central committee meeting held at Setlalekgosi Junior Secondary School. Gudu and Kuchwe were suspended in relation to their recent decision to attend a central committee meeting and press conference organised by the new Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC).
The BPP said it had not sanctioned the two men to attend the activities. While Gudu and Kuchwe said they have also been selected to be among the four BPP representatives in the UDC, the party (BPP) maintained the contrary.
“We have suspended them for 45 days pending a disciplinary hearing. Their conduct brought the name of the party into disrepute. By late Monday (today) they would have received the suspension letters,” BPP secretary general Venter Galetshabiwe said after the meeting.
He added that the BPP will now start participating in official UDC meetings. “Before the end of this week I would have submitted the names of the four people who will represent the BPP in the UDC.
“We have now resolved that we should address our concerns while we are in the new UDC. Delaying to join the new UDC has created an impression that we do not want to join the new UDC while that is not actually true. We just wanted our concerns in the old UDC to be addressed before we could join the new coalition.”
BPP president Motlatsi Molapise, his deputy Mbaakanyi Lenyatso, deputy secretary general Shatiso Tambula and Galetshabiwe are the four members who will represent the BPP in the UDC.
Since the beginning of the year the BPP has not attended meetings of the new UDC, which features the Botswana Congress Party (BCP). The BPP shunned the meetings because it felt that the BCP was not properly welcomed into the coalition. Molapise has been cited as a ring leader of those who shunned the meetings.
The duo maintained that the move was ill advised and the BPP cannot thrive outside the UD. They also accused Molapise and some of his BPP associate of trying to influence other members to join the recently established Alliance for Progressives (AP). BPP members recently voted against ditching the UDC. Yesterday both Gudu and Kuchwe said that they are yet to be notified about their suspensions.