DK celebrates BMD press brief

GREG KELEBONYE & EPHRAIM KEORENG
Staff Writers | Thursday June 3, 2010 00:00

 

While he has maintained that he will not leave the BDP, Kwelagobe pleasantly surprised BMD members when he unexpectedly showed up at a BMD press conference yesterday.

All along there has been much speculation that Kwelagobe is one of the major forces behind the formation of the BMD, as all the people who left the BDP to join the BMD or were dismissed from the BDP are members of the Barata-Phathi faction which he was known to lead.

Kwelagobe's children, along with children from other prominent and traditionally BDP  families, have openly supported the BMD.

The press conference was called to announce the defection of the Student Representative Council members of the University of Botswana from the BDP to the BMD.

Kwelagobe arrived midway through the press conference accompanied by Mogoditshane Member of Parliament, Patrick Masimolole, and BMD deputy chair and Gaborone West South Member of Parliament, Botsalo Ntuane.

Ntuane is a political protege of Kwelagobe's. Kwelagobe arrived to loud cheers. As deliberations went on, mentor and protege exchanged some banter, each time a speaker said something that roused an excited chorus from the crowd. Now and then, Masimolole, Ntuane and Kwelagobe would flash a smile in response to some snide remark about the BDP from the floor.

Following his appearance at the press conference, many who attended openly declared that it is only a matter of time - perhaps days - before Kwelagobe declares his association with BMD.

This suspicion was heightened by Kwelagobe's boisterous declaration that he was, like a good shepherd, following his sheep. This was after another one of his protgs Kabo Morwaeng declared when welcoming the SRC into the BMD fold: 'Modisa wa dinku, fa di tswa ka lesaka o di sala morago - When the flock bolts out of the kraal, the shepherd follows them,' he had said, to which Kwelagobe responded, 'Fela jaaka o bona ke lo setse morago - just as you see me following you.

'If you understand that Setswana proverb by Morwaeng quite well, it means that 'when the flock bolts out of the kraal, the shepherd goes after them to bring them back...Don't write a story to say I have defected to the BMD because I have not,' he said.

Earlier in the day the BDP issued a press release signed by Kwelagobe to the effect that he would not defect to the BMD.