Opposition urged to fix its house

Francistown South parliamentary candidate Vain Mamela has urged BOFEPUSU Labour Secretary and long time trade unionist, Johnson Motswarakgole to focus his attention on labour issues rather than preach partisan politics amongst workers.

Mamela was speaking during a Botswana Congress Party star rally and motorcade in Francistown South on Friday.While officiating at the UDC conference in Serowe in July, Motshwarakgole said that Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) is the party that has answers to the cries of workers in this country. He urged workers to vote out Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) in the October billed election in favour of UDC.

Motshwarakgole said BOFEPUSU had sent him to congratulate the three parties, Botswana National Front (BNF), Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) and the Botswana Peoples Party (BPP) for heeding the federation’s call for a united opposition.

Mamela came out guns blazing as he said Motswarakgole who was once BNF council candidate was now advertising its coalition through BUFEPUSU. Mamela said Francistown residents should not be deceived into buying Motshwarakgole`s ideology because the UDC project failed during its launch in Tlokweng.
He explained that the Umbrella 1 negotiations had failed. It was after that the BMD connived and deceived BNF to agree into Umbrella 2 talks. “We have worked with Motswarakgole before and we know him.

BNF is a crybaby we cannot waste our energy on it,” hit out Mamela. The maverick parliamentary candidate said rebellious individuals who wanted to form another BDP that excluded President Khama formed BMD. “It is very unfortunate for BNF because if you look at most of the founders of BMD they have all gone back to BDP to name a few Botsalo Ntuane and Guma Moyo, “Ngwana wa noga ke nogana,” he said. This he said is a trap for BNF already evidenced by the fact that currently in Francistown it does not have any parliamentary candidate and should be a wake up call for them or else soon they will be crying foul.

Reached for comment, Motshwarakgole said he fails to understand why he would become the topic of the day in Francistown rally. He said Mamela should learn to tell people what he intends to bring once voted to parliament not to focus on petty issues. He said he has learnt not to answer people like Mamela because they are a waste of time. “Mamela should not be discussing me during his political rallies and the shocking thing about that is I am not standing for elections,” Motswharakgole said.

The veteran trade unionist said he is a disciplined member of BNF since 1974 and served as a councilor for Kgale View only to resign later. He said the decision by BOFEPUSU to endorse UDC has not been brought by the leaders of the unions but by Union members who wanted a party that would best serve their interests.He said as one of the leaders of the biggest unions in Botswana he cannot tell members which party to vote rather they let people decide for themselves the party they think would best lead them.