- Boko accused of neglecting his BNF duties
- Central Committee not happy with Boko’s leadership style
- Accused of failing to convene CC meetings
SONNY SERITE
While the president of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), Duma Boko, is currently traversing the country preaching prosperity among contracting parties, it has emerged that the Central Committee of his party, the Botswana National Front (BNF), is not happy with how he has ‘neglected’ his responsibilities within the party. Boko is accused of spending too much on UDC assignments to the detriment of his responsibilities as BNF president.
The BNF central committee has since decided to take Boko to task and demand explanations for his leadership. The Botswana Gazette is in possession of a copy of a letter written to Boko by 17 members of the BNF central committee in which they raised their concerns over his delay in convening central committee meetings.
The letter headlined ‘REQUISITION OF BNF CENTRAL COMMITTEE MEETING’ begins by reminding Boko that the authors are cognisant of the fact that section 19.2.3 of the BNF constitution confers powers to convene Central Committee and Executive Committee meetings on the President of the BNF, save for extra-ordinary BNF Central Committee meetings.
They however inform Boko that the decisions, resolutions and directives of the BNF Central Committee are binding as per section 13.10 of the party constitution and remind him of the binding decisions taken by the Central Committee which he is accused of disregarding.
‘‘Noting that on the 9th August 2017, the BNF Central Committee resolved that all CC meetings that were scheduled for mid-week should be transferred to weekends following that week. And the next meeting of CC after the previous one was due on the 14th October 2017. Noting further that a week before the due date, you instructed Deputy Secretary General, comrade Shampoo Matshediso, to postpone the CC meeting indefinitely since you would be away on an official duty,” the letter reads in part.
‘‘As a result, the Deputy Secretary General Comrade Shampoo Matshediso posted on the BNF CC WhatsApp group informing members of the CC that comrade President has postponed the CC meeting indefinite. When members questioned why the Vice President could not chair the meeting, the DSG responded that comrade President said he had an item to present to the CC,’’ the letter elaborates.
Boko is also said to have failed to convene a central committee meeting following his official trip in Russia. ‘‘Upon returning from Russia comrade President addressed BNFWL, Youth at Ave Maria, a rally at Molepolole and thereafter toured the country without convening the deferred CC meeting. To date members of the BNF CC do not know when the deferred meeting is going to be convened,’’ the BNF leadership put it to Boko.
The central committee members wrote that it was due to Boko’s continued failure to convene a meeting that they met and agreed to request him to convene a Central Committee meeting. The concerned central committee members have listed issues that they want in the agenda of the meeting and they include among others, UDC Congress and matters incidental thereto, BMD issue, BNF primary elections and matters incidental thereto, Unifying the BNF in the midst of defections, UDC transitional report- as peddled in the media, Date of BNF Leadership Forum, Paucity of Executive Committee meetings and BNFWL report.
‘‘In the spirit of collective leadership and genuine democracy the governing body of the BNF (that is CC) must debate fundamental questions and political controversies together and persuade (not coerce) one another in the quest to promote democratic principles as enshrined in section 2.2-2.3 of the BNF Constitution,’’ reads part of the committee’s letter.
The BNF Central Committee implored Boko to convene a meeting on 19th November 2017 at 11:30am and also assured him that the letter is written in ‘‘the spirit of popular democracy and respect for the BNF Constitution as well as a way to be true BNF members who care to advise their president to embrace teamwork and collective decision-making in the political life of the BNF’’.
Efforts to contact BNF Secretary General Moeti Mohwasa were futile as his phone rang unanswered while other central committee members were reluctant to discuss the matter in public.