BNF scolds Botswana Post
... for live streaming BDP event
Botswana National Front ( BNF) says the act by Botswana Post and the Ministry of Agriculture to live stream a Botswana Democratic Party ( BDP) event should be condemned in the strongest terms. The BDP National Council and ExtraOrdinary Congress were live streamed on the platforms of the Ministry and Botswana Post. Botswana Post has since apologised for the incident, arguing that it was an error by one of their partners. BNF Secretary General Ketlhalefile Motshegwa says as the party they are highly disturbed by latest trends where Government parastatals meddle in partisan politics as demonstrated by Botswana Post’s broadcast of BDP Council and Press conference. He stated that Parastatals are statutory bodies with specific mandate and are funded from public coffers, and therefore must stick to their statutory mandate, and avoid the risk of being BDP public relations agencies or consultants. “Botswana Post has been created in terms of Botswana Postal Services Act to provide for the establishment of an organisation to be known as the Botswana Postal Services for the provision, development, operation and management of postal services and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto,” said Motshegwa.
The BNF Secretary General pointed out that the conduct by Botswana Post has demonstrated clear lack of discipline and professionalism, and “we hope oversight institutions like Parliamentary Committee on Parastatals and the Board itself will act on the matter.” According to Motshegwa, even Radio Botswana and BTV disrupted their normal programme for a whole day in order to broadcast the BDP Council, an arrangement not extended to opposition parties. He stated that this is clearly demonstrating that the playing field is not even in the country’s politics. In its apology, Botswana Post stated that the live streaming was not sanctioned. The parastatal assured stakeholders that it is committed to its mandate of providing affordable convenience for its customers through high quality, sustainable and profitable postal services. Botswana Post went on to remove the post from its facebook page. Botswana Television ( BTV) has since taken responsibility for the glitch and apologized, making it clear it is the partner BotswanaPost was referring to.