The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) by-election winner, Moagi Taunyane, is now a member of the opposition Botswana Movement For Democracy (BMD), the BMD’s head of mobilization, Kabo Morwaeng, has revealed.
Taunyane won a by-election under a BDP ticket, following the death of his father, beating the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) candidate by 307 votes.
At the time of going to press, the Tsholofelo South councilor declined to comment but the BDP’s secretariat confirmed his resignation from the ruling party.
“I have learnt that he has resigned,” revealed BDP general Secretary Kentse Rammidi in an interview with the Sunday Standard. The BMD has vowed to add more members to its bandwagon, especially high ranking officials from the BDP.
“Every Friday we will be getting a councilor from the BDP,” said Morwaeng.
He says that the BDP is in a sorry state and will continue to lose members to the BMD.
“Our party is attractive to people with an open conscience and it also shows the confidence they have in our party,” he added.
Morwaeng’s pleasant news, however, have turned Rammidi into a rather apprehensive man.
“As secretary general, l am worried, I don’t think people can just resign,” says Rammidi.
He says that the party leadership seriously needs to introspect to find out what is causing the defections of councilors from the ruling party.
“I don’t know if we have reflected but the sooner the better,” says Rammidi.
Rammidi told the Sunday Standard that he will make an effort to talk to Taunyane to find out exactly what drove him out of the BDP.
He says that although he is yet to find out what is causing the defections, the defections amounted to a loss of confidence. He says that he needs to know what exactly is bothering most people who are suddenly unhappy with his party.
Several BDP councilors, most of whom won the 2009 general elections by a small margin, are believed to be making a crusade to the BMD in an effort to save their political careers ahead of the 2014 elections where the opposition is expected to form one party to contest the elections.
Rammidi says that if people are resigning from the party to save their political careers then it is equally a big problem.
“When people don’t have confidence that we can win, if people doubt our ability to compete then we have a problem,” he stated. “We as the leadership of the party should introspect.”
