Ledumadumane East loss ‘blame’ on Rakgare & co.

The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) chairperson for Ledumadumane East ward has written a letter to the party disciplinary committee against 10 party members who are alleged to have contravened the party constitution.

The 10 members who are likely to appear before the party disciplinary committee for different offences include the Member of Parliament (MP) for Mogoditshane, Tumiso Rakgare, councillors Kemiso Tom and Gaborutwe Thekiso, deputy branch chairperson Mogomotsi Motlhagodi, branch member Pitso Sekao, branch member Babili Babili, branch member Joyce Mosala, branch member Tsholofelo Tswige, disciplinary committee and Bulela Ditswe candidate Bontle Pilane, Bulela Ditswe candidate Sello Diutlweleng, employees at the MP’s constituency office, Katlego Jaudi and David Segone.

The letter written to the party office by ward chairperson Kingston Mmolawa reads: “The above mentioned BDP members have throughout the by-election campaign period contravened multiple sections of the BDP code of conduct as stipulated in the party’s constitution.

“Furthermore, they individually and collectively attended a party hosted by their fellow democrat, herein changed/ listed, to celebrate the opposition by-election win. There is no doubt that their collective persistent de-campaigning of the BDP candidate led to the BDP failing to retain the council ward. The offences that the members had committed include campaigning for or promoting the interest of other parties against those of the BDP and its candidates, sowing seeds of discord in the party, using regionalism, tribalism or factionalism, persistently and without just cause undermining the respect for or impeding the smooth functioning of party structures, engaging in organised factional activity that goes outside the recognised norms of free debate inside the party structures and threatens its unity, washing the party dirty linen in public and using parliamentary or council positions and privileges to attack the party and its government,” Mmolawa said.

Still, on the issue of the code of conduct for candidates at the BDP primaries, the letter says the candidates who have not won primaries were duty bound to support the winning candidate but the accused candidates failed to do so.

It says the unsuccessful candidates should demonstrate commitment, loyalty and support to the party and the winning candidate but the ones who were not successful had failed to honour that.

Therefore, the letter further requests that the code of conduct for primary elections should apply to Diutweleng and Pilane while the code of conduct should apply to Rakgare, councillors Tom and Thekiso.

“I pray that the matter is treated as urgent given the sensitivity and the nature of the offences,” he said.

Kweneng regional committee secretary Obakeng Kgabo said: “We have not received any letter from Ledumadumane East ward”.

Mogoditshane branch committee secretary Percy Tshuba was reluctant to comment or deny the issue. “I am not allowed to talk about party internal matters,” he said.

The BDP secretary-general Mpho Balopi indicated that the party was still waiting for evaluation reports from all wards that had held by-elections and those reports will guide them on why the ruling party suffered losses. “With the disciplinary correspondence from Ledumadumane East, my office is not aware of the matter. We will only know about the issue after the briefing from the disciplinary committee since the letter is addressed to them.”

Even if BDP members in the Mogoditshane constituency have had their internal fights since 2018, recently the loss of Ledumadumane East ward by-election has seemingly made the situation worse as members have started to fight openly.