22 Jul 2015

The youth and women’s leagues of the Botswana People’s Party (BPP) have been called upon to work tirelessly in their efforts to resuscitate the party.

Officially opening a joint conference of the two leagues in Tsamaya on Saturday (July 18), the party leader, Mr Motlatsi Molapise, said the youth and women were capable of propelling the party forward.

Expressing discontent on the state of the BPP, Mr Molapise urged both structures to work hard; noting that if the party remained weak, the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) would be affected.

“If we are weak, the UDC will also be weak. Our becoming strong also strengthens the UDC”, he said, further pointing out that if the party remained weak, its partners in the UDC would look down upon it.

Mr Molapise said the BPP had lost all the constituencies it contested during the last general elections and that had impacted negatively on the general performance of the UDC at the polls.

He said the fact that to many people the party was non-existent should not evoke anger in the party loyalists, but should rather be treated as a warning that should force them to introspect and devise strategies that would help turn the fortunes of the party around.

On the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) not being part of the UDC, Mr Molapise appealed to party members to desist from criticising the former for their decision not to cooperate with other opposition parties but to instead devise strategies of winning them over.

He said the UDC needed the BCP to unseat the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) .

The secretary general, Mr Shathiso Tambula, emphasised the need for the party to become relevant to the needs of the people.

Mr Tambula spoke against what he termed an inferiority complex among BPP members; saying some of them preferred to be identified only through the UDC and not their own party.

He thus appealed to them to have confidence in their party as well as to take pride in being its members.

The chairman, Mr Richard Gudu, appealed to the youth and women’s leagues to come up with resolutions that were capable of taking the BPP, the UDC and the country as a whole forward.

He urged them to fully deliberate on issues affecting Batswana and bring forward resolutions that would help bring about change. Ends