Pilane to bounce back as UDC vice president-Butale

The Alliance for Progressives Secretary General Dr Phenyo Butale has said they will never form an alliance with “people with blood on their hands”. 

Butale is convinced that news making rounds that Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) President Sydney Pilane has stepped down from his position to allow for a congress re-run is all part of a grand plan by Duma Boko to bring back a clean or dry cleaned Pilane at UDC.He was responding to a BG enquiry on whether AP would join opposition coalition, UDC. He warned that Boko and Pilane have long connived to have AP President Ndaba Gaolathe ditched from the leadership of BMD and ultimately UDC.  “Following the disputed Bobonong congress which resulted in two opposing factions, we approached the UDC president Boko to intervene as we strongly believed that a congress re-run was the only possible way to mend broken fences at the troubled BMD but to no avail as he was not even prepared to lift a finger in intervention,” Butale said. He finds it surprising that BMD is now prepared to go for a congress re-run after the departure of the faction that formed AP. He said this indicates clearly that Pilane will bounce back.  “If that is not the case, then why didn’t Boko recommend for a congress after Bobonong straight away? He knew very well that his crony Pilane was going to be thrashed by Ndaba hence his reluctance to issue such a directive from the onset. Now that we have formed our new party, Boko orders a re-run knowing very well that Pilane will emerge victorious without any challenger.  “His clean sweep win will then be used as a democratic reason for having accepted him back inside the leadership of the opposition bloc. This time around even stories that reported about his stepping down are not clearly quoting him declaring that he has stepped down for good to be an ordinary member,” he said. 

When quizzed about their intentions regarding joining UDC to topple the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), Butale made it very clear that AP will never form any kind of an alliance with “people who have bloody hands”. He decried that since the Bobonong congress some of his party members are coming in and out of hospitals thanks to the brutality meted on them by Pilane and his comrades Efforts to solicit a comment from BMD acting president Nehemiah Modubule hit a snag at press time as his mobile rang unanswered.