BDP attributes their loss to bulela ditswe disgruntlement and water crises
SESUPO RANTSIMAKO
RAMOKGWEBANA: Botswana People’s Party (BPP), one of the country’s oldest opposition parties, has managed to dethrone the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) Ramokgwebana council ward after 24 years of vying for the seat.
Over the weekend the BPP candidate who stood under Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) Morapedi Mafotlha wrestled the seat from BDP with 387 against 293 votes garnered by his competitor Godfrey Smile. The win means that BPP now has a total of two councillors across the country.
The last time BPP won the Ramogwebana council ward was in 1994 but the councillor crossed to the ruling BDP shortly thereafter. Since the 1994 election the BPP has failed to win back the council seat, until this weekend when the party wrestled for it under the UDC ticket.
Delighted BPP Campaigner Manager Rambo Masole attributed their victory to their campaign message that focused on the acute shortage of water in the area. He is of the view that the electorate have been frustrated as a result of voting BDP, which continues to fail at resolving the water crisis that plagues the village. “For a very long-time water shortage has been a source of concern in our village, we have raised this issue to all the leadership and relevant stakeholders but we are not getting any assistance. We are drinking dirty water from dams. So, this alone has made people realize that the party they have been voting has dismally failed to address the issue,” Masole said in an interview.
BDP internal disputes that arose following the primary elections that determined their candidate contributed to the BPP victory. “I want to believe this also worked in our favour because there were factions that were bred by these primary election results. These disgruntlements made us to work even harder in winning the hearts of the electorates. From the onset we never looked back because we wanted to wrestle this ward by all costs,” UDC Campaign Manager observed.
BDP Campaign Manager Paulos Nkoni admitted that the primary election was a contributing factor that cost them the ward, as it caused disgruntlement within the party. “The primary elections might have negatively affected their performance. Also, I think we lost because we did not work extra hard like opposition, we thought it was straight forward we are going to retain the ward. Further maybe we were also misled by the voters because during campaigns there was no indication that we might lose,” Nkosi said in an interview.
The BDP Campaign Manager also attributed their loss to the water crises bedeviling Ramokgwebana village. “I want to admit that this issue of water is one factor that made people to vote against BDP because they feel that we have failed to address the issue. But it must be noted that we are currently addressing the water crises issue. Our council has been awarded P200 million to resolve the issue,” Nkoni maintained.