Boko bounces back

TSHIRELETSO MOTLOGELWA
Staff Writer | Wednesday June 23, 2010 00:00

 

In a statement released yesterday, the party says it came to the conclusion that Boko's membership is valid after deliberations held on the same day.

This followed an application by BNF member Thuso Mogorosi who had put the validity of Boko's membership into question a few weeks ago, asking for the lawyer to be barred from contesting.

Mogorosi argued that Boko's membership period did not fulfil the minimum five years required for one to run as a presidential candidate for the party. The central committee subsequently banned Boko from contesting.

The party revealed that although Boko had claimed to have had a valid life membership prior to March 2010 when he was issued with a renewal, a taskforce had later found that he was a founding member of splinter group, the National Democratic Front, in 2003.

All the while, Boko maintained that he had a membership card from 2003 showing the validity of his membership but he could not locate it, nor could the party office.

Boko and his supporters have been holding their breath while searching for Boko's valid membership card indicating a membership of longer than the five years minimum required by the party constitution.

Last week, Boko announced that he had found the membership card, throwing the central committee into an invidious position.

The party leadership met to consider Boko's membership card and take evidence from both Mogorosi and former BNF Secretary General, Akanyang Magama, who - as it turns out - signed the membership card.

'After hearing the whole body of evidence brought before it, the central committee then took a decision to rescind its decision on the status of Boko's membership', says the BNF statement.

'The central committee (has) accepted Boko's card as legitimate. This decision therefore means that Boko is free to contest for (the) Party Presidency in the forthcoming July Congress, in terms of the Constitution.'

Boko has welcomed the decision. 'It will allow the party to choose from a wider pool of candidates,' he says. 'The more the merrier,' he concluded.

Meanwhile, BNF sources say Mogorosi might turn to the courts to seek to overturn this decision. Attempts to reach him were unsuccessful.