Member of Parliament (MP) for Mahalapye West, David Tshere has refuted reports that he leaked a telephone conversation between him and Minister of Health, Dr Edwin Dikoloti.
In the leaked telephone audio Tshere made a call to Dikoloti telling him that residents of Mahalapye are complaining about medication shortage in clinics and hospitals. Dikoloti asked Tshere to tell the relevant officers to order medication at Central Medical Stores (CMS). He also said some officers support Tshere politically and he (Tshere) must ask them to stop sabotaging Batswana.
In an interview with Mmegi Online this morning, Tshere said it was unfortunate that their conversation got leaked. “According to my phone log, the call happened on January 8, 2023, after 12 noon in front of two other people who were complaining about medicines. By then I thought I could call the Minister so that they could hear him as well. Unfortunately, in the process, something like that came out,” said Tshere.
“The sheer guts of one senior government official to record and leak a private phone conversation between him and another government official discussing a critical issue is shocking and criminal. To have a leader Tshere, in his position, unashamedly share and authenticate such privileged dialogue is unprincipled, deceitful and a threat to national security,” Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) NYEC slammed Tshere in a press release yesterday. But Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) spokesperson Moeti Mohwasa, said the first thing the BDP Youth Committee should have done was establish if indeed Tshere leaked the conversation rather than rushing to make ill-informed conclusions.
“For now it is mere speculation and we believe the BDPYL is merely being imaginative. Since it is not conclusive, but pure speculation and conjecture that Tshere leaked the recorded conversation, we cannot comment save to make a few observations. The question is where has the BDPYL been all along while our people have been dying because of a lack of medicines? They should be advised to focus on facts rather than speculation. What is a fact is that Batswana are dying because of the failure on the part of the government to supply medicines,” Mohwasa highlighted.
Mohwasa added the country's health care system has become so chaotic and it is in shambles, right under the stewardship of the BDP. He also said it is unfortunate that the BDPYL has been quiet while the negligence and dereliction of duty that characterise the government have and continue to take so many of our people's lives. “Theirs is a strategy to divert attention from the real issues and are scraping the bottom of the barrel”, he said.
Mohwasa said rather than call for the review of Tshere's position as chairperson of the Parliamentary Health committee, the BDPYL should be reviewing their party's service delivery record. He said the many deaths could have been avoided if the government had been adept.
