The Botswana Congress Party (BCP) has confirmed that the British Labour Party, which recently won elections in a landslide victory, is still funding it through the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) fund.
The BCP and the Labour Party’s relationship goes back decades and on Wednesday, the BCP president, Dumelang Saleshando, confirmed during a press brief that they have managed to maintain a relationship with the party, which had been in the wilderness for 14 years before removing the Conservatives in a recent election. “This is a relationship built on shared values. The British Labour Party, like the BCP, has a very strong history of advocating for human rights. They are the strongest proponents for higher wages in Europe. They promote very strongly the national public healthcare system. We have common values like our manifesto highlights common issues like the national healthcare that is accessible and delivers quality care in that country,” Saleshando explained. He stated that the BCP is still going to work with the Labour Party, which is led by the recently inaugurated Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Saleshando highlighted that they will continue seeking financial assistance from their friends in the Labour Party. He said the funds are British tax payer’s money. “We are looking for more assistance from the British Labour Party,” he pointed out.
He highlighted that there is nothing secretive about their relationship with the Labour Party because the latter helps more with capacity building. The Maun West legislator also disclosed that the BCP is not the only party in Botswana that benefits from the WFD fund. He added that they are not the only organisation that has benefited from the fund. In 2017, WFD launched a two-year programme to support research and information management in the Parliament of Botswana and improved methods to engage citizens with the Parliament’s work. Working with parliamentary staff from the Research and Library, Hansard, public relations, and ICT departments as well as those who support committees, the programme aimed to foster improved, evidence-based policymaking and increase citizen participation in legislation and policymaking. The programme closed in 2019.
Saleshando also recalled how in the past a legislator in Parliament felt that the Labour Party’s decision to fund the BCP amounted to funding a coup d'état. He reminisced that he would later tell the MP and everyone who thought the same way that the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) has also benefited from the WFD. Saleshando alleged that the BDP also benefit through the latter’s relationship with the Conservative Party. “The BDP has common values with the Conservation Party and it promotes the economy that works for a few with the exclusion of many. Unlike the Labour Party, the Conservatives are not exactly strong proponents of democratisation. It is on record that under The Conservative Party, big corporates and rich people pay less tax and the BDP likewise has come up with the same system,” he said. The BC’s relationship with the British Labour Party started in the early 2000s when the BCP was still an infant party. The relationship is said to have been established on mutual respect and like-mindedness in core political values anchored on social democracy. The BCP’s alignment with the British Labour Party was amongst others done in the hope to use the latter’s experience to address the former’s deficiencies. In the past, the BCP held workshops for its members and it was organised in collaboration with the British Labour Party and sponsored by the WFD. The workshops have reportedly helped in strengthening the relationship between sister parties from Africa and the British Labour Party. The BCP and the British Labour Party have been exchanging notes on policy formulation and networking between sister parties as well as coming up with effective and sustainable fund raising strategies.
The WFD on the other side is the UK public body dedicated to strengthening democracy and open societies around the world. The WFD is said to be helping make countries' political systems fairer, more inclusive, and more accountable. They do this by working with Parliaments, political parties, electoral bodies and civil society. For more than 30 years, the WFD says it has actively helped democracies to grow stronger, so that freedom and prosperity can flourish. Locally, the BCP has formed an alliance with the Botswana Labour Party (BLP) ahead of the October General Election. The BLP, a Botswana National Front (BNF) splinter party, came into being in 2022 and it will contest the General Election under the BCP logo.