19 Jul 2022

Botswana Congress Party (BCP) members have been warned against getting sponsorships.

  The warning was issued by party president Mr Dumelang Saleshando when officially opening the party’s national conference in Mahalapye Sunday. 

  Sponsors, he said,  came with conditions  which in most cases would not be aligned to the BCP’s core values and would compromise the party’s ability to deliver on its electoral pledges. 

“No big corporate player enters the political space with the interests of the marginalised at heart. They do so for purposes of state capture and payback time for them is when you get into office,” he said. 

He urged members to be self-reliant to the greatest possible extent when it came to resource mobilisation adding that consistent contributions to the party would prove to be a good investment in the long term. 

  The BCP leader informed his audience that the party intended to spread its wings to areas where it had low support. 

  “We need to reach out to many Batswana who share our hopes for a better Botswana. A better economy that works for all, a better Botswana where corruption is not tolerated,” he said. 

 Touching on the state of the party, Mr Saleshando, who is also Maun West MP, said the turbulent environment within the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) had undermined BCP’s performance capability.

“We have a track record that shows our commitment to defending our democracy, holding the national leadership accountable and speaking for the weak and marginalised sections of our population,” he said. 

Batswana, he said were looking to UDC for the change they  desperately needed and were frustrated by developments as they unfolded in the coalition body. 

“It is appropriate for us to apologise to all Batswana who have been pinning their hopes on greater unity as a positive prospect for change of government. Some are asking for the BCP to compromise on its calls for good governance, democratisation and accountable leadership,” said Mr Saleshando. 

He said it was important for  BCP members to understand what good governance entailed.

Its features included transparency, accountability, participation, responsiveness and checks and balances, said the BCP leader. 

“Good governance is a yardstick that has come to explain who we are, it is our DNA,” he said.

Mr Saleshando, who has been suspended from UDC, said an entity that had no culture of good governance and internal democracy when not in government could not uphold those values when ruling. 

“If a party is unable to uphold, defend and protect its own constitution, how would it uphold, defend and protect the national constitution when in power? This is a question that we should all ponder,” he said. 

Despite the acrimonious relationship with the Botswana National Front, he said BCP remained part of the Opposition Cooperation Forum and had submitted its proposals for 2024. 

He said BCP and Alliance for Progressives were the only parties that had met the set timelines and would have to commence talks on cooperation for 2024 if others did not return to the negotiating table.

The BCP central committee had resolved that the party should proceed with negotiations, he disclosed. 

He also informed the congress that he and BNF president Mr Duma Boko had agreed that where possible,  no stone should be left unturned in protecting the gains they made in the 2019 general elections. 

The two leaders also talked about some issues for reflection  such as lifting UDC national executive committee members’ suspensions, withdrawing the case against UDC on suspensions and lifting suspension of the five BCP MPs. 

Giving a solidarity message on behalf of MELS, the party’s secretary general Mr Mogae Tawanana said his party had a lot in common with BCP and not with BNF. 

He said if anything happened to BCP, his party would also exit the UDC.  “If anything happens to the BCP, we are also going. We consider it a crime to betray a leader the way some BCP members did to Mr Saleshando. 

Those members should have protected their leader,” he said. BOPA