How do you say you are resigning from a structure that has already been told it is being reconstituted? Ookeditse
The sexual misconduct controversy surrounding the disgraced President of Botswana Patriotic Front, (BPF) Biggie Butale has caused more damage to the party with 14 of the 17 Youth League members allegedly aligned to him threatening to resign next week.
The Youth League faction headed by the BPF Youth League Organising Secretary, Ogaufi Nthobelang has told this publication during an exclusive interview that they have planned to meet their party Patron Ian Khama and Chairperson, Obowetse Gabotlale to air their grievances.
Expressing his misgivings about how the Butale issue was handled, Nthobelang said, “Some of the decisions taken are not in the interest of the party but certain individuals. It is either they do things for them to benefit individually or to sabotage others,” Nthobelang said, adding that they had expected a high level of responsibility from the National Executive Committee in resolving Butale’s issue.
“We expected them to handle the issue with the sensitivity it deserved if at all they cared about the concerned woman and the party but they shared a lot of information with the public prematurely and without even considering the damage it was causing. Information was released to the public before a serious assessment of the issue was done internally.”
“Issues of molestation are handled by police not party members. The fact that the party decided to handle it the way they did without involving the police shows that there is a hidden agenda that they are pushing and we know those behind the leaks,” said Nthobelang who then refused to reveal names.
Nthobelang also accused some NEC members of unsatisfactory performance, which then burdened the party patron with most of the campaign work.
He added that as the BPFYL they have tried to advice the party and shared their grievances before but they were not taken seriously.
“We have taken a decision to meet Khama and Gabotlale before we resign from our positions.”
“Only the late Secretary General, Roseline Panzirah- Matshome used to listen to us but since her passing we are on our own,” said the disgruntled youth.
However, Party Spokesperson, Lawrence Ookeditse said that they were not aware of such developments.
“The party has not received any complaint from the youth league. Instead, the youth league itself has at different times reported that some members had at different points expressed desire to move on to other services to the party. Remember they had been an interim structure, which was supposed to prepare for elections of the youth League. Due to covid -19 outbreaks they could then not hold an elective congress. This meant some had to now stay much longer than they had anticipated and or planned to,” Ookeditse explained.
He further noted that given those circumstances, the NEC then directed that the structure be reconstituted and the Youth League president has been reporting back to the party periodically on progress with this.
“I trust at the next NEC meeting he’ll be presenting the new committee that’ll prepare for Youth League elections. So, how do you say you’re resigning from a structure that has already been told it is being reconstituted?” Ookeditse asked rhetorically