BPF settles for extraordinary congress
The Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) has postponed its elective congress and instead it will hold an extraordinary congress to rectify some of the leadership mandates within the party. The BPF elective congress was supposed to be held at the end of this month.
According to the BPF chairperson Baemedi Kudumane, the National Executive Committee (NEC) met yesterday (Thursday) to discuss several issues, especially the elective congress.
“There are a number of issues that have led us to postpone the matter. Some of the things that the committee had to consider were the fact that the court case consumed our time. It was very important that the NEC awaits the decision of the court because there was no peace due to misunderstanding within the NEC. It is important now that we communicate to all of our structures regarding the decision we took as NEC.
It must be noted that the date for elective congress will not be announced now. The extraordinary congress will rectify the NEC decision regarding the Opposition Cooperation,” Kudumane said in an interview. He added they will at first hold the annual congress on the morning of December 3, 2022, to discuss their relationship or cooperation with the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC). Kudumane said the members will be briefed on the cooperation with UDC so that they can discuss it. He stated that the members had wanted to be briefed about the UDC issue. Currently, the BPF has affiliated to the UDC while the members have not made a resolution on the matter. Still, on the matter, some Members of Parliament (MPs) and councillors from the party were unhappy that the BPF NEC had taken a decision to affiliate to the UDC without engaging the membership first. Meanwhile, Mmegi has learnt that the BPF had wanted a pact with UDC instead of affiliation. In addition, the party MPs believe that there is need for all factions to reconcile within the party in order to have peace and stability. The MPs also believe that if there is no reconciliation then there are likely to be divisions that may split the party.