UDC chickens coming home to roost
Alliance for Progressives (AP) will soon reveal all the dirty tricks that were applied by some contracting partners in the UDC which led to Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) spliting, AP Vice President Wynter Mmolotsi has said.Mmolotsi stated that they are aware of what their colleagues in the UDC being Botswana National Front (BNF) and Botswana Congress Party (BCP) did for the BMD to split.
BMD split last year resulting in the formation of AP. This was after a bloodbath election congress in Bobonong where one faction led by now AP President Ndaba Gaolathe clashed with the one led by BMD current President Advocate Sidney Pilane. Gaolathe’s team dumped BMD when UDC leadership did not heed their call for a fresh congress.
Addressing a rally in Gaborone this past weekend, Mmolotsi said BMD was split by the leadership of BCP and BNF. The outspoken vice president revealed that the leadership of the two parties orchestrated a plan to have Gaolathe removed as vice president of UDC. Mmolotsi who is also Member of Parliament for Francistown South pointed out that people should not listen to the UDC especially when the party claims that AP would not take power on its own.
He told the gathering that very soon Advocate Pilane and BMD Secretary General Gilbert Mangole would be on radio stations spilling the beans about what transpired.“It is time we talk about these things. Very soon I will reveal what exactly transpired to find ourselves where we are today. But before I do that the BMD president and his secretary general will soon be on radio to explain these things.
“They will reveal how they were assisted by the BCP and BNF to topple Gaolathe from BMD leadership and that of the UDC,” said the legislator. Mmolotsi revealed that when they were suspended from the BMD, they discovered that the charges that they were facing were drafted by lawyers from BCP and BNF. He said the charges had email addresses of a BCP lawyer and the other belonged to a BNF lawyer.
“Mangole has publicly indicated that they were assisted in their fight against us. Advocate Pilane will soon reveal that on such a date we met at Botswana Public Employees Union (BOPEU) where the plan to remove Gaolathe was undertaken. The plan was to remove Gaolathe so that BCP President Dumelang Saleshando could become UDC Vice President. Very soon the public would know the truth,” said Mmolotsi. Mmolotsi’s utterances on BCP’s hand in the BMD split came a few weeks after Mangole made the same statement in Mochudi.
Mangole indicated that the BCP was the root cause for all the problems in the UDC and played a hand in the BMD split. The accusations have been dismissed by BCP leader Saleshando as cheap politics. AP has for long indicated that it would not work with UDC which has both BMD and Advocate Pilane in it. The party has stated in various fora that they do not recognise Advocate Pilane as a lawfully elected president who can sit around the same table with them.
BMD is currently on suspension and at press time the UDC leadership was deliberating on the letter presented by BMD rubbishing its suspension from the UDC.