BCP Youth League approaches APYL -Discuss ‘possible working relations’

SESUPO RANTSIMAKO

FRANCISTOWN: Botswana Congress Party (BCP) Youth League has confirmed that it has proposed a meeting with Alliance for Progressive (AP) to discuss possible working relations.
Sources within the AP alerted The Botswana Gazette to the meeting which is scheduled for this week at a date that will be announced “in due course.” The meeting was also confirmed by BCP youth league Spokesperson Dimpho Marshall Busang who, however, could not be drawn into disclosing the agenda.
“I can only confirm that we recently proposed the meeting with AP youth league and they have agreed, but we are yet to meet. Therefore, I am not in a position to divulge the agenda as this might somehow jeopardize our discussion or some people might even misinterpret what we discussed in good faith,” he said.
Sources however say the BCP youth league intends to convince AP youths to convince their mother body to return to the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) or alternatively urge them to consider a coalition between the two parties for the 2019 general elections.
“BCPYL is confident that AP YL can play a major role in advancing the issue to its mother body. If the APYL can advance the importance of possible working relations with the UDC or even BCP alone, maybe the mother body will easily consider the issue,” an insider stated.
It is however no secret that relations between AP and BCP have been frosty since the Bobonong congress which saw the Ndaba-led faction of the Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) break away from the party last year.  Members of both parties have exchanged heated remarks on social media and in political rallies, with BCP’s Phagenyana Phage being particularly the most ferocious. He caused a stir last year in a remark widely deemed offensive and tribalistic while deriding Ndaba Gaolatlhe for “crying dramatically than Masire’s children” during the statesman’s funeral, saying it was as if the AP president was hired to cry the way Batswapong are hired to cry in funerals in Bangwato region.
BCP Vice President Dr Kesitegile Gobotswang during a recent ‘March Against Corruption’, urged the AP to learn from mistakes of the BCP and return to the opposition coalition head of next year’s elections.
Reached for comment AP youth President Jacob Kelebeng however said he was not aware of any proposed meeting but said they were open to discussions with the BCP. “I have not yet received any communication from the BCP YL but I believe if indeed it is true they will do that officially so that we can respond accordingly,” he said.