BNF loses another one

RYDER GABATHUSE
Staff Writer | Thursday August 9, 2007 00:00

The BNF has once again lost to the buoyant BCP with the defection of its candidate in the by-election, Themba Patrick Gugah. The BCP caused a surprise recently when it snatched the Mmopane council seat from the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) as the BNF through Gugah finished an embarrassing third with a measly 58 votes. The BCP represented by Phagenyana Phage won the by-election with 353 votes. In the 2004 general elections, Gugah finished second with 297 votes to the BDP candidate.

Yesterday, the politician told Mmegi that he has decamped to BCP where he hopes his contribution will be appreciated. 'I have found a new political home at the BCP and I hope my voice will be heard better and my contribution duly recognised,' he said.
'It's indeed true that I am no longer a member of the BNF. I no longer want to be associated with the BNF because of its system of administration which drove me to quit,' he told Mmegi.

He said when he joined the BNF in 1993, the party had character but now it has degenerated to an organisation of 'pettiness and intolerance'. On Monday he said in his resignation letter that he was vilified under the assumption that he belongs to the vanquished BNF faction led Dr Kathleen Letshabo. 'This was however, a baseless assumption as I was never associated to any faction. This attitude of depriving deserving comrades the opportunity to serve the party on the basis of which faction they are associated with, will definitely destroy the BNF in the next elections,' he said in the letter.

He lamented that the intention of the current BNF leadership is to eliminate anyone who is supposedly associated with the Letshabo faction. 'The party has suffered serious credibility crisis since its infamous Molepolole extra-ordinary congress to elect new leadership and there is no hope that it will ever recover and be in a position that it can be perceived as serious by he voters. It has lost direction and focus and its future is not promising anything worthy of my continued association with it.'

The letter said that the current central committee does not project the BNF as a serious political organisation that has the ability to transform the political landscape of the country.

BCP information and publicity secretary, Dumelang Saleshando confirmed that Gugah has been admitted to the party. 'Like other people who have been joining our party lately, they continue making a statement about the troubles at the BNF. This is a chap who did well in 2004 and only to make a poor showing in the last by-election due to instability within the main opposition party,' said Saleshando. 'Gugah's resignation is a symbol of bad times at the BNF,' he added.

BNF secretary general, Mohammed Khan said he learnt of the resignation through rumours and he is yet to go to the party office to read Gugah's letter. He said that after the by-election Gugah suggested that some people had pushed him to represent the BNF although he was not ready to stand. 'If he has left and joined the BCP as the rumour goes, then it will answer a lot of questions about him because of his laissez-faire attitude towards the campaigns for the by-election,' Khan said.  He asserted that Gugah's performance in the by-election is a result of a protest by those who do not like him.