Tawana likely to skip BDP star rally in Maun

MONKAGEDI GAOTLHOBOGWE
Staff Writer | Friday June 4, 2010 00:00

Tawana would not immediately comment saying he is still busy, but said he did not know anything about a Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) advert in the Daily news which lists him as one of the speakers at the rally.

However a BDP official in Maun ,Cosmos Lelatlhego who recently resigned as secretary of the branch committee confirmed to Mmegi that Tawana is not happy that he was only made aware of the star rally on Wednesday this week,

'The MP has shared his unhappiness with the constituents. He says he will not be at the star rally because people were not consulted, the region, the branch committee and the MP only learnt this Wednesday that there will be a star rally; the MP will be absent, he says he will be attending the funeral of the late Baledzi Gaolathe, Lelatlhego said. The funeral is on Saturday.'

Lelatlhego says he attended a branch committee meeting in Maun on Wednesday, which went on till late at night as people voiced their displeasure at what they saw as poor consultation processes by the Party headquarters.'The issue at the meeting was the star rally and it was unresolved; we are meeting again tonight (last night) to discuss the matter, because people here feel their MP is being sidelined by the Party, they like him very much and they want to know why he was not consulted,' Lelatlhego told Mmegi. However, branch committee chairperson Motlagomang Mauchadza sees nothing untoward about the planning of the star rally, although she also told Mmegi that MP Tawana told her he has a funeral to attend in Gaborone on Saturday.

' I held a branch committee meeting on Wednesday where I informed the councillors and other officials about the rally and discussed mobilisation for the rally. Yes the MP told me there is a funeral he is attending, but we all know about the funeral, in fact that is why this star rally is being held on a Sunday afternoon, so there is no problem.'

The branch committee chairperson says everyone in Maun received letters announcing the star rally on Tuesday, and she feels they were notified well ahead of time. ' All the officials concerned received their letters on Tuesday, that is not a short notice. Besides there is nothing wrong with the headquarters initiating a star rally, they usually do that. I'm not aware of discontent in the constituency; in fact we expect the MP to be around to receive people in his constituency,' Mauchadza told Mmegi.