Open letter to the BNF central committee
Friday, March 07, 2008
Instead of wasting time and energy you should come out clear and apologise to Gaborone North BNF members. It is not understandable why your committee decided to process Ntime's application only to contest for BNF primary elections in a constituency which he is not a members. What an outrageous decision! The fact of the matter is that on December 3rd 2007 Gaborone North General membership made it clear that it doesn't want somebody in the constituency whose mission is only to come and contest for a parliamentary seat. At the meeting which was held at Tsogang Primary School, BNF members constantly rejected Ntime's transfer letter from Molepolole South to Gaborone North. So there is no any other party structure which does have the power to impose Ntime on the people as your want us to believe.
That I am the one who does not want Ntime to contest for Gaborone North parliamentary elections is utter rubbish. What should be understood here is that it was not procedural for me to receive Ntime's application form by the time I was the Constituency Election Chairman because my responsibility was to help Gaborone North BNF members who wanted to stand for primary elections. So, it would have been a lack of understanding of the BNF constitution for the then elections committee to accept somebody from outside constituency to contest in Gaborone North. It is therefore violation of principles of democracy for the top party leadership to impose Ntime on the people instead of advising him to stop trying to plunge Gaborone North into unnecessary political chaos.
Speaker of the National Assembly, Dithapelo Keorapetse, has this week rightly washed his hands of the mess, refusing to wade into a party squabble that has no clear leadership and no single version of the truth.When a single party sends six different letters to the Speaker’s office, each claiming to be the authoritative voice, it is not just confusion, but an embarrassment.Keorapetse is correct to insist on institutional boundaries. Parliament...