'Khama is BDP's last card,' says BCP candidate

OLIVER MODISE
Staff Writer | Tuesday February 26, 2008 00:00

Maswabi was speaking at the weekend after being launched at a rally by the Botswana Congress Party's President Gilson Saleshando and Secretary General Taolo Lucas as the BCP candidate for the by-election scheduled for March 15 in the ward.

Maswabi criticised the BDP government's handling of the current power crisis, saying the Minister of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources Ponatshego Kedikilwe was burdened with a problem that was out of  his depth.

He dismissed the government's efforts to source power from Zimbabwe. 'Can we trust Zimbabwe to honour its obligation?' he asked, saying it was strange that people were not being told of the effects of the power crisis on the economy.
Maswabi said Botswana could have forged ahead in business if was not for the BDP government. 'Let's investigate why small businesses collapse,' he urged the crowd before blaming it on 'too much red tape'.

The Botswana Export Development and Investment Authority (BEDIA) came in for sharp criticism for registering foreign companies promptly at the expense of local businesses and for being obsessed with investor confidence without insisting on accountability.
Maswabi said Vice President Ian Khama's 'automatic succession' to the presidency represented the Botswana Democratic Party's last card. 

He warned that even the dead would be called to account for who was sponsoring the BDP when the BCP came to power, linking the issue with cellphone service provider Mascom's alleged renovation of Tsholetsa House, the BDP headquarters on Botswana Road/Khama Crescent in Gaborone.

Earlier, Lucas had told the rally that a vote for Maswabi would be a statement to both the outgoing president and the incoming one that Batswana were not happy with the country's current state of affairs.

'You can show your complaint through your vote,' Lucas said. He cited a Bank of Botswana (BOB) report that he said showed that while the country's economy had grown, the gap between the rich and poor had worsened.

The Botswana National Front (BNF) also came under Lucas' fire when he described Botswana's official opposition as a circus: 'BNF members and supporters should show their displeasure with their party by voting for Maswabi,' he said.
Meanwhile, the BNF also drew heavy artillery at another launch rally addressed by Margaret Nasha, who heads the ruling party's political education and elections committee.

Appearing as guest speaker at the launching of Nunu Lekau as the BDP's candidate for Marulamantsi, Nasha said the capital city was hardly developing because of the infighting of BNF councillors who run its council. Roads, streetlights and other services are in a deplorable state because things are not being properly planned from ward level as ward development committees are elected along party lines instead of on merit. Without contributions from wards, city planners are forced to assume what is wanted.

Nasha, who is also the Minister of Local Government, then trained her guns on ex-mayor Nelson Ramaotwana, who she said was obsessed with tabling useless motions and attending conferences.

'Vote for Mma Lekau and help us get rid of the thugs at the Gaborone City Council,' she said, adding that she had thrown out certain BNF councillors' motions brought to her desk because they were not good for development.

One such motion, she said, was Ramaotwana's in which the former mayor had called for the sacking of Kutlwano Matenge, the City Clerk. 'I told them that they were out of their minds,' Nasha said.

She claimed Ramaotwana had once demanded to attend a conference on atomic energy in South Africa. 'When I asked him what relevance the conference had (to Botswana), he said the African National Congress had said it would pay,' Nasha said.