BCP celebrates bittersweet 15 years

Bill Clinton was in trouble for lying about an affair with a 22-year-old White House intern and empire builders from the West were gearing up for a prosperous and profitable decade. Fifteen years later, workers and the working class have changed the political landscape across the globe and Botswana is no different. The BCP has supplanted its parent, the BNF and is now the biggest single opposition party in the Botswana Parliament in terms of members. After the severe birth pains that produced the BCP from the BNF, the party has had to contend with a hostile political reception.

BCP president, Dumelang Saleshando says the propaganda machine of the BNF and BDP were vicious with accusations that BCP MPs stole BNF seats. "There was even a parliamentary motion by Gladys Kokowe proposing the discontinuation of floor crossing in Parliament and later, a parliamentary committee addressed Kgotla meetings across the country debating the floor crossing motion," Saleshando says.