BCP not anxious about the departure of councillors

Botswana Congress Party does not consider the loss of its Councillors who have defected to the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) as an existential threat, party Secretary General, Goretetse Kekgonegile has said.The Councillors’ defection follows an offer by the UDC leader Duma Boko to exempt them from primary elections for the 2024 general election.“They left because they feared losing primary elections in the BCP. The majority of them are not even fit for leadership at any level. Our investigations are that since they were elected, they never held kgotla meetings in the wards.“What do you make out of that? They knew their communities had lost confidence in them and were going to replace them in the next party primaries because they do not fit the BCP standards and expectations of the people,” Kekgonegile told The Midweek Sun.He said that the majority of the concerned councillors had become redundant because they had been there for 15 years or so. According to the Secretary General, the only regret on the part of the BCP is that the party has overtime invested in the cadres a lot of time and resources to capacitate them with leadership skills.“The loss of even a single member is not something you can celebrate as a party especially when they are joining another party. Unlike the Members of Parliament (MPs) who left us last year, when our ineffective councillors scrambled for the UDC offer, they left the people behind. They took no one with them,” Kekgonegile revealed.Instead of agonising over the defectors, he said that his party and its coalition partners such as the Botswana Labour Party (BLP), is gearing for the preparation of primary elections and drafting the Manifesto for the 2024 general elections.Meanwhile, one Tiego Mpho, a BCP activist in Maun, has also resigned from the BCP for the same reasons that the councillors have done.“First, let me express my gratitude for the experiences and opportunities accorded me by the party during my time as a member. But after much reflection, I now do herein resign from the party,” said Mpho, whose judgement is that the BCP withdrawal from the UDC will result in the "postponement yet again of regime change and the attendant worsening of both the standard and quality of life of majority of our people which I cannot be complicit to.”Kgotlaetsile Bantatetse of Goo-Molopo Ward in the Goodhope constituency has in a letter dated May 17, resigned from the BCP and joined the UDC.

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BCP not anxious about the departure of councillors