Gaborone rejoins BDP

LEKOPANYE MOOKETSI
Correspondent | Wednesday November 3, 2010 00:00

 

  Gaborone made the announcement at a meeting of BNF members in Tlokweng last night. 

Gaborone said he would hand over his resignation letter to the BNF today and apply for BDP membership. 

'I am going to resign with immediate effect from BNF tomorrow (Wednesday).  I will be applying for BDP membership,' said Gaborone as he waved his resignation letter. Curiously he turned up for the meeting clad in BNF colours. 

He said he believed he would be able to contribute to the development of the constituency without being frustrated. Citing frustration as one of his reasons for leaving the BNF, he said he believed that the BDP would allow him to work for the constituency without being frustrated.

He is not happy with the manner in which the BNF is being run, hence his resignation, he said. Gaborone said that the BNF could not be run professionally as individuals in the leadership believe that they own the party.

'They own constituencies. They own wards,' he said adding that members who are committed to delivery in their constituencies are seen as interfering. 

Gaborone, who is a former BNF vice-president told the meeting that he had never had peace since he was recruited to the BNF in 2002.  He said that one of the BNF members who recruited him was the one who turned against him.

At the time he was recruited Gaborone was a member of the BDP, but resigned in what was largely seen as a protest march after he was dismissed from the Botswana Telecommunications Corporation by then Transport and Communications Minister David Magang. 

'The very person who recruited me to the BNF, now claims that  I am no longer listening to him.  He even said nasty things about me at a BNF rally in Tlokweng,' he said. He said even that official, together with some members of the party did not vote for him during the 2004 general elections, which he went on to win.

However, he said, things became worse last year, as more BNF members chose not to vote for him, but to decamp him by advising members to vote only for BNF when it came to councillors and for BDP when they cast their votes for the Member of Parliament.  This, he said was the reason why he won with a narrow margin.

The BNF councillors in Tlokweng, Same Bathobakae and Norah Nkwe, who flanked Gaborone at the meeting, assured the BNF members that they are not leaving the party with him. In leaving, Gaborone is fulfilling a 'prophecy' by then Vice-President Ian Khama.

At the time he launched former specially elected MP, Shirley Segokgo as a candidate for Tlokweng, Khama had said to the BDP faithful, 'fa e le Gaborone ene le seka la mo tshwenya. O tla a boela mo Domkrag,' meaning that BDP followers should be kind with Gaborone as he would come back to the BDP.