Alliance for Progressives aligns with mokoko
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Friday September 22, 2017 18:00
Excited AP sources revealed that Dabutha was not interested in contesting the by-election until some influential BMD members convinced her to stand before the announcement of the new political movement.
They even claim that they have been campaigning for her behind the scenes. The BMD is a contracting party under the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC).
“We have been holding secret meetings with her long before the formation of the AP was announced. Botswana People’s Party (BPP) president Motlatsi Molapise was requested to launch her, but he turned down the request,” a source said.
Despite the close door pledge to help her with the campaign, the AP will not openly show its support to Dabutha.
This is because they are not convinced that Dabutha will snatch the ward from the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP).
The AP secretary general, Phenyo Butale said he could not comment on the issue of Dabutha. “We are a new political party that aims to seek out all progressives across the country and that does not exclude anyone. I cannot comment on the issue of Dabutha. She has not asked for our assistance and she is not a member of AP,” Bu
tale said.
For his part, Molapise said he has not received the invitation from Dabutha to launch her. “When it arrives, I will consider,” Molapise said.
Meanwhile, AP president Ndaba Gaolathe on Wednesday said, “as long as the UDC remains committed to a genuine spirit of unity, the Alliance for Progressive will be keen to work, align and/or apply for some form of arrangement with the UDC”.
“There are those who say unity first, and then honesty, justice and sincerity come later. We say honesty, justice and sincerity must be the foundation on which unity will be built; once we have these, they will attract like-minded citizens under a natural unifying force of a value system that stands the test of time.
And one of the greatest fruits of our work under the UDC over the last five years is indeed that our political parties are actually superficial walls, we know that and we understand that,” Gaolathe said during the announcement of AP at Ave Maria Conference Centre.
“This has been the spirit of the UDC, and as long as the UDC remains committed to a genuine spirit of unity, the Alliance for Progressive will be keen to work, align and/or apply for some form of arrangement with the UDC. This will obviously need the input and guidance of our members at the appropriate time and forum.
The people of Botswana must rest assured that the Alliance for Progressives wants more than the unity of the opposition, we also want to play a large role in uniting all our people, our entire nation.”
Mmegi has learnt that the AP has been in existence for two months. Butale did not confirm or deny the allegation. “We have been working behind the scenes.
We felt that we needed to find another alternative because the other group was not prepared to cooperate,” Butale said.
An effort to get comment from Dabutha was not successful as a person who answered her mobile phone said she was busy campaigning.
Recently the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) wrote to Dabutha advising her to use the symbol and colours that have been approved by the IEC and refrain from using any other symbol and colour.
This came after Botswana Congress Party (BCP) complained that Dabutha is using their party colours in her campaigns. The BCP is also a new member of UDC.