BDP goes all out in Goodhope/Mabule
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Friday October 13, 2017 12:52
The team, which is expected to start its tour next week in all the nine wards in the constituency, will also comprise two delegates from each ward. This came to light after the constituency wrote to the party central committee informing them that the constituency could only become winnable if all party members were consulted in order to know what the problem could be in the area.
“The problem for Goodhope/Mabule started in 2013 when BDP members kept on speaking amongst themselves in the area, showing some displeasure on how party primaries were being conducted. For the first time after many years, the party lost this constituency with a margin of 611 to the opposition, something that surprised us as democrats. But surprisingly in the meetings, members pretended as if everything was fine. Things became even more clearer when we lost the Goodhope ward during the by-election. Out of nine wards, we lost one. Goodhope ward is one of our strongholds,” Motsaathebe said.
He added that one of the roles of the task team was to find the real course of BDP members not voting for their party, but rather opting to vote for the opposition.
Motsaathebe said the team will embark on a process of introspection and consultation to try to bring on board members who have a feeling that they are not involved on party matters. He said the exercise would help them to deal with the burning issues quickly before the 2019 general elections.
Motsaathebe admitted that the party has a lot to do when it comes to voters' rolls because some members get angry when they do not find their names on it.
“Imagine I am a life carrying member of the party, but my name was not on the voters' roll. It has a lot of faults which need to be corrected,” he said.
Motsaathebe said they will hold closed door and open meetings to try to bring the people together.
However Mmegi has learnt that some democrats at the constituency are unhappy with the consensus candidate, minister Eric Molale.
“Our problem with the candidate is that he is not sellable unlike Motsaathebe. The workers are not going to vote for us. Again, he has been holding meetings with his preferred people and not inviting other democrats. This issue is complicated than most of people think,” the source claimed.
But Motsaathebe, who had to step down for Molale and become the latter's campaign manager, declined to discuss the issue.
“It is important to forgive each other as democrats and move on.
We are all human beings and bound to make mistakes,” he said.