BDP Mogoditshane branch revives structures
Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) Mogoditshane branch seems to be winning in its effort in trying to revive the party’s fortunes in the constituency. The development comes after the BDP central committee encouraged its regions to embark on membership recruitment drive in their areas as a way of reviving party structures.
The move is expected to strengthen the party’s presence by encouraging members to be active as well as recruiting and attracting new people into the party.
Just this week, the branch was reported to have managed to welcome eight members from the opposition parties and and brought back 18 others who had resigned from the party to support Tshepang Mabaila. The latter contested the 2019 general election as an independent candidate for the Mogoditshane constituency. “
We are targeting almost everyone but especially those who stood for contest in 2019 general election. Even those disgruntled members who lost primary elections in different parties.
The BDP also wants its members who have defected to other parties to come back to it. We are negotiating with some members from the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC). We hope by next week the negotiations will be completed. We are in negotiation with the Alliance for Progressives (AP) candidate for 2019 Edwin Molebatsi and soon he might join us. Currently, we are expecting at least a total of five people that stood for elections under the UDC.
Most of the people who might come back are some former BDP members who were no longer active and some had resigned but could not join any party,” the branch chairperson Percy Tshuba said in an interview. He admitted that the previous misunderstanding that was there in the constituency has been resolved .
He added that the BDP members are now united and they are working together even in the recruitment drive that started last month. On the issue of Mabaila, the chairperson said they have made a recommendation to the party central committee that he be readmitted. “Mabaila has also asked that his suspension be lifted but we referred the issue to the central committee because we are not the ones who suspended him, but President Mokgweetsi Masisi did.
We hope that the central committee could write its view on the matter this month. Our target as Mogoditshane branch is to recruit and welcome all the members who had left our party to come back. We cannot reveal all of our strategies,” Tshuba said. Mabaila was slapped with a five year suspension in 2018 after he was said to have asked some Members of Parliament (MPs) to pass a motion of no confidence on President Masisi.