- Says her conduct was motivated by “a desire to right a wrong”
- Asserts her proposal to engage Kgosi Mosadi was not favourably considered
- Insists her actions sought to protect the image of the BDP and not the other way round
STAFF WRITER
Specially Elected Member of Parliament, Unity Dow, has rebuffed accusations by her party that her rejection of its caucus decision to replace Kgosi Mosadi Seboko as a member of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) constitutes “behaviour calculated to bring the party’s name into disrepute”.
In a strongly-word response to the party’s call on her to show cause why action cannot be taken against her, Dow states: “Quite to the contrary, my conduct was motivated by a desire to right a wrong and to give the Speaker an opportunity to correct an error. Such can only enhance the party’s reputation.”
No vacancy
Dow says she did everything in her power to save the party’s image and remedy the situation, including lobbying the Speaker of the National Assembly Phandu Skelemani and Vice President Slumber Tsogwane as the Leader of the House, but her efforts eventually proved to be in vain.
“I informed the Clerk of the National Assembly, via WhatsApp, that I had discovered that the Speaker had mistakenly declared a vacancy at PAP when none existed,” she says.
Not a media statement
“I expressed the view that there being no vacancy, there was none for me to fill and specifically asked her to inform the Speaker and asked whether she thought I should write a formal letter on the issue.”
Dow says she was advised to write a formal letter and did. “The following day I delivered the letter that is now the subject of Hon. Kablay’s complaint,” she states.
“It is important to state that: The letter was not a media statement. It was a) addressed and delivered to the Speaker, b) copied and delivered to Kgosi Mosadi and c) delivered to the Hon. Kablay.
“The letter was addressing an issue that had been debated in Parliament which was therefore in the public domain. The Speaker was, in any event, obligated to inform the public about the turn of events.”
Kgosi Mosadi never resigned
Dow says at the end of Parliament that same day, she engaged the Vice President on the issue and he explained to her that “the problem was that Kgosi Mosadi had resigned but had not followed the verbal statement with a written confirmation”.
“I offered the view that Kgosi Mosadi could be engaged to resolve the issue but it did not seem my proposal was favourably considered,” writes Dow who also says Kgosi Mosadi told her that she was still a member of PAP, had not resigned as claimed and had no intentions of resigning.