- Launch suspended “for bringing the party into disrepute”
- Suspension followed controversial radio interview
SESUPO RANTSIMAKO
FRANCISTOWN: Recent remarks by the MP for Francistown West, Ignatius Moswaane, about the controversial water tender has left his BDP parliamentary candidacy hanging in the balance after a rally at which he was to be officially launched was cancelled at the eleventh hour “for bringing the party into disrepute”.
In the end, Moswaane addressed the rally by himself under tough conditions that included steering away from reasons for the indefinite suspension of his official launch.
According to sources who attended a heated meeting chaired by his party’s Deputy Secretary General Shaw Kgathi and its Francistown Regional Committee, Moswaane is being punished for remarks he recently made in an interview on a private radio station about a multi-million pula water pipeline contract awarded to Khato Civils in which he accused the Minister of Lands Management, Water and Sanitation, Kefentse Mzwinila, of misleading Parliament about the tender.
Besides these remarks, Moswaane is allegedly also being punished for going against the BDP’s parliamentary caucus to support the P900 million project. Moswaane has expressed shock at the suspension of his launch. “What I was told by Kgathi is that the party feels that I brought the name of the BDP into disrepute when informing the nation about what happened about the Masama project,” he says.
“I never spoke ill about the party because for starters the issue concerning the P900 million is national. So I do not understand how the BDP is brought into disrepute. The nation was demanding clarity on the controversial P900 million water project. As the Chairperson of the Finance and Estimates Committee, I have authority to reveal what happened and the BDP is totally far from this issue. I do not know if the BDP wanted me to be silent when the tendering process was flawed.”
But an unrepentant Moswaane told the rally that he continued to suffer at the BDP and that he would ask Kgathi to raise the matter with President Mokgweetsi Masisi. “I want to assure you that despite the political challenges I am facing, I still stand by my word to fight corruption,” he said. “Just like President Masisi, I stand against corruption. That is what I did in relation to the P900 million tender.”
Moswaane said he is yet to know his fate regarding his candidacy amid reports he could be replaced for working against the Masisi administration. He has dismissed allegations of working with the newly formed Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) and that he is likely to cross the floor.
The Chairman of the BDP’s Francistown Region, Baemedi Medupi, declined an invitation to comment. The head of the party’s Communications Committee, Kagelelo Kentse, said suspension of Moswaane’s launch was instantiated by people tasked with it. What I can tell you is that the postponement was due to misalignment of launches,” Kentse added.