Balopi says emergency meeting was for Bye election preparations
Botswana Democratic Party’s Secretary General, Mpho Balopi, has come to the defence of his party following an Emergency Central Committee meeting that was called by the President Mokgweetsi Masisi on Wednesday.
In an interview with this publication, following reports that the party was planning to drop some members of the CC and some from Cabinet including him, Balopi was quick to dismiss the allegations saying the discussions were about preparations for the upcoming bye-elections.
“It is not true, we are Botswana Democratic Party. We have tried and tested processes and procedures for electing the party leadership. As such it cannot be true that the party is planning to drop some just like that,” he explained. “We were discussing the bye elections which we are going to win by the way, and other party regular business.”
For some time now there have been allegations of bad blood between Masisi and his party SG.
Party insiders told this publication that the President wanted to drop Balopi from his positions as the Minister of Employment, Labour Productivity and Skills Development and also from the SG position.
The source said that the stumbling block was that no offence has been found to pin against Balopi.
Balopi, who is expected to defend his SG position at the next party congress, was also alleged to be eyeing the Chairmanship position reserved for the Vice President.
For the SG position he is likely to come up against businessman, Lesang Magang.
Boyce Sebetela is out of the race after joining the public service as Chief of Staff while Alfred Madigele has since dropped from the race.
Although there have been reports of Masisi contemplating to bring Madigele back, the former Health Minister has refuted the allegation saying he was focusing on his business.
“I am concentrating on my medical practice,” he said.
BDP Central Committee convenes every first Monday of the month but this time around, Masisi called the emergency meeting, further fueling speculation that his ship may be sinking.
