BDP Youth League secretary rejects new constituency chairman
Uyapo Tshambani, the Botswana Democratic Party ( BDP) Youth League secretary in Francistown west constituency, says he does not recognise the newly- elected chairman of the constituency, Sambandawe Mpenzeni.
“He does not have my support as he is in the party office by default. He was not brought here by party members but by a faction, which includes Gilbert Boikhutso who is a nominated councillor and Ontiretse Bakaile of Botsalano ward,” Tshambani explained.
His position is that because of the departure of the area Member of Parliament ( MP), Ignatius Moswaane, who has since joined the opposition, some people felt the pressure to bring someone to the constituency to start mobilising voters for the primary elections ahead of the 2024 general election. According to the 27 year- old Tshambani, the controversy around Mpenzeni’s membership has divided the party not only at the constituency but at the regional level as well, but noone seems keen to address the divisions. “Because of this stalemate, some people are threatening to leave the party. When we approached the regional committee, it referred us to the same constituency committee which is led by Mpenzeni. We are still waiting for the regional committee to do something about the matter,” Tshambani continued. When contacted for comment, Mpenzeni laughed off the story wondering why Tshambani went to the media when the party has got processes.
“I am surprised. We have processes in place that should be followed by anybody who feels aggrieved. He should go to the right structures in the party. For your information, I was duly elected at a constituency congress recently.
“I won the position after beating another contestant. As far as I know, no complaint has thus far reached the party concerning my membership status,” Mpenzeni noted in an interview. For his part, chairman of the Francistown region, Moemedi Medupe denied any knowledge of Tshambani’s concerns regarding Mpenzeni’s membership of the BDP. “Mpenzeni has been a BDP member for some time now. Any BDP member around here will recall that Mpenzeni was Moswaane’s campaign manager at the 2019 general election in Francistown west constituency. “Besides, President Mokgweetsi Masisi has made him a member of the Political Education Committee ( PEC). This should remove any doubts about his membership to the BDP,” Medupe clarified and challenged Tshambani to bring his matter to the region if he knows what he is talking about. Interestingly, in a letter dated April 7th and addressed to the National Youth Wing Executive Committee, Tshambani argues that his problem is not so much the issue of Mpenzeni’s membership of the BDP but whether his chairmanship is regular or not.
“Ex- officio members such as Boikhutso and Bakaile were wrong to have participated in the organisation of the constituency congresses where Mpenzeni was elected. Nor should they have arranged the ward congress which facilitated the constituency congress,” protested the youth league secretary. His argument is that all congresses arranged by the councillors were against the rules and regulations of conducting congresses as there was no communication in the form of announcements for the ward congresses. Although Moemedi Medupi claims he was not aware of Tshambani’s complaints, in his letter to the Youth Wing Executive Committee in April, Tshambani maintains that he interacted with Medupi on the BDP problems in the constituency. “He advised me to go back and further study the situation which I did. I then asked him to act on the matter by nullifying the ward congress and then draw a schedule for conducting the ward and branch congresses,” Tshambani wrote. BDP Information Officer at party Headquarters, Pheko Pheko, could only say that the party is fully aware of the problem and is facilitating a meeting of the Francistown west structures of the party.