21 Jun 2016

President Lt. Gen.  Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama continued his Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) regional closed door meetings in Lobatse  on June 19 .

Speaking in an interview after the meeting, southern region chairperson, Mr Selefha Ditshwane, said the President’s visits were a result of a resolution from a congress held in Mmadinare in 2014.

He said this was meant for the President, as the leader of the party, to get first hand information about progress and challenges that the regions faced.

Mr Ditshwane said it had been resolved that the southern region be divided into two regions, indicating that the region, which had seven constituencies, was vast.

He said the southern region niow had three constituencies while the southwest had four constituencies.

He said the regional committees would now be able to attend to the needs of the region and touch base with people in the grass roots.

He said the membership drive and recruitment formed part of the discussions of the closed door meeting.

Mr Ditshwane said the party also showed concern on the past elections, therefore the President requested regional reports before the July special congress.

He said it was important for all the differences that party members had, especially after the primary elections, to be ironed out and for all candidates to work together towards the national elections.

He said it was discovered that party members who lost primary elections especially in the past elections, either defected to opposition parties, de-campaigned those who won or stood for elections as independent candidate, a thing he said cost the party.

He said the meeting agreed on  a way forward in ensuring that the party worked hard towards winning the 2019 general elections. ENDS