New Party Could Lead To Instability Within Opposition
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Monday September 25, 2017 16:33
This is after some members expressed concern over the decision taken by UDC National Executive Committee (NEC), which they felt favoured Sidney Pilane team more than Gaolathe one.
Gaolathe announced Wednesday last week that their new political home is called Alliance for Progressives (AP) and told the members of how the events unfolded for them to be where there are.
Already, there are some BNF members who are reported to have resigned with others to follow in the near future.
BNF spokesperson, Justin Hunyepa said, “the BNF is not going to lose many members to AP.
When there is a new party, members from different political parties might consider joining the new party ”.
“The BNF still remains stable and the issue of Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) is not going to shake us. This is a two way thing, some are also going to defect to us or to Botswana Congress Party (BCP),” he said.
Hunyepa said the BNF has received only one resignation letter from BNF youth league publicity secretary, Nakoentle Katise and if some are intending to resign, they have not brought any letters to the office.
The BNF youth league secretary general, Osenotse Mabote said, “Only one member has resigned and I talked to other members, they also indicated that they have no intention to resign. It should be clear that BNFYL is intact and its members are committed to the party. We will stand with our party even if it faces tough times. Katise has contributed immensely in the party and his defection has hurt us as the youth league”.
The BNFYL has not been happy since it was voted at their Mahalapye congress in 2016, because formal hand over took too long. The youth league complained that close to P60,000 had to be accounted for by the previous committee.
The issue of handing over dragged for long and was even raised this year at the Kang conference. The BNFYL felt that the party central committee disappointed them, because it failed to force the previous committee to hand over.