BPP men quit the heat

OLIVER MODISE
Staff Writer | Thursday November 22, 2007 00:00

'It is true that I have quit the party,' revealed Mogatle. He stated he was resigning because he did not agree with the party's weekend resolution against cooperating with other parties.

'I believe that the BPP will take a long way to liberate Batswana,' arguing that for him, 'unity of opposition parties was the ultimate solution to wrestling the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) out of power.

'I did inform them about my position after the congress and I have already given them a letter,' he said.

Mogatle alleges that some party officials used the party congress as a stepping-stone to pull the BPP away from the idea of cooperating with other political parties.

He expressed frustration at the conduct of the congress, describing this as shameful for the party leadership to deliberately divide the house as a ploy to advocate against cooperation.

'I have not been approached by anyone and I am not a member of any other political party,' he said.

Also joining Mogatle on the party's exit list, the party's organising secretary reiterated that he was disturbed that the party leadership was 'fashionising' factions at the party's expense.

Feni said he was resigning from the party because the party leadership has carelessly opted to tarnish the party's image by painting a picture of factional fights within the party when the party had no factional divisions.

'It is not true if you say we have factions,' he said, adding that the BPP was a small party to be associated with factions. 'I was not expecting such things especially when we have been struggling to bring members into the party,' he complained.

Feni is credited as one of the party's hardest-working cadres. He represented the BPP as part of the taskforce on unity among opposition parties before the party pulled out.

Feni refused to divulge which party he would join, but indicated that he would make it public hopefully by the first week of December.

'I want to respect the BPP for now,' he emphasised.

The party's publicity secretary, Edward Mpoloka confirmed he was aware of a resignation letter from Feni but denied knowledge of the party vice-presidents resignations.

'All is not well, and I think the central committee will have to urgently sit down to interrogate this issues,' said Mpoloka.