Francistown mayors chide irate councillors

EDWARD BULE
Correspondent | Thursday May 27, 2010 00:00

In an undated albeit hard-hitting letter addressed to 'His Worship the Mayor' and 'Honourable Councillors,' former mayors, Messeurs Iqbal Ebrahim, Motlatsi Molapise, Tymon Mongwa and former deputy mayors, Margaret Mosojane and Angelina Sengalo, were disappointed at,' the behaviour, attitudes and seemingly pointless debates that are now taking place within the Francistown City Council Chambers'.

The letter further urges the civic leaders to put aside their political differences and, working as a team, concentrate on what is expected of them, namely, the growth and development of the city of Francistown.

The letter further says, 'You therefore have the added responsibility placed upon your shoulders to put aside your differences so that you are able to tackle the critical issues that our city faces, the serious challenge of poverty, unemployment, housing shortages, maintenance of infrastructure, the development of a vibrant business sector, service delivery bottlenecks and other developmental issues'.

The Francistown City Council chambers have in the past few weeks been the arena of serious differences between the mayor and his councillors over the composition of a delegation to Belgium.

The Mayor, Shadrack Nyeku was accused of unilateralism in picking the delegates. The Councillors felt that the procedure had been flouted. So serious was the fallout that the Assistant Minister of Local Government, Kentse Rammidi had to personally intervene to break the impasse.

The unimpressed petitioners go on: 'The majority of Francistown residents look on in embarrassment at the antics of some of you. In the current circumstances we are not interested in the petty politics of who serves in what capacity or in which committee, neither the internecine political infighting nor the senseless point scoring and time wasting debates- we want leadership and we want to see all of you focus on delivering on your mandate'.

 They urged the civic leaders to serve with dignity, respect, maturity and the commitment of putting the interests of Francistown and her people first.

Ebrahim was reluctant to discuss the letter as he awaits a response from the addressees.

Angelina Sengalo, said in an interview that during her time as deputy mayor, there was tolerance amongst the councillors from across the political divide. Issues, she said were debated objectively and with maturity without party affiliation or factionalism influencing the content and tone of the deliberations.

She is worried that as civic leaders spend hours squabbling over petty issues, the development agenda suffered.

The Francistown City Council however, took umbrage at the manner of communication used by the petitioners. Their anger turned to outrage when they discovered, during their meeting with President Ian Khama, that the letter had been passed on to him. Apparently, there is no intention of honouring the writers of the letter with a reply.

In an interview, Tabengwa of Ikageleng Ward could not understand what it is that the petitioners expected to have been achieved by the seven-month old council considering that the budget allocations were only done in April.

Besides, part of the alleged infighting by the councillors, he says, is a reflection of what is currently happening in the Botswana Democratic Party. Shah Jack of Monarch West supports the view proposed by Khama at his meeting with the councillors that Council should arrange a meeting with the petitioners.

Raoboy Mpuang of Monarch East sees mischief in the whole thing. He says that the former civic leaders should have demonstrated maturity by requesting for a meeting with the mayor to present their concerns.

Alternatively, they should have sought audience with their respective councillors at the wards as all other voters do.

The sharing of the letter with no less a person than the head of state is seen by Mpuang as a desperate attempt at point scoring by the same people advocating against point scoring.

He further notes that some of the petitioners might be bitter after losing the 2009 general elections. Others, according to him, might be trying to get the attention of the President.

Lazarus Tlou of Itekeng says that if the former civic leaders had no hidden agenda, they could have shared the letters only with the addressees.

He wonders what the petitioners achieved within seven months after their election as civic leaders.