A section of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party youth are concerned that the Central Committee is interfering and meddling in the affairs of the Youth League.
This comes after the Central Committee implored the youth to change the dates for the national congress scheduled for July this year.
At the Youth Congress, the national leadership will be elected.
As per the BDP regulations, the National Chairman of the Youth League sits on the Central Committee as an ex-officio member.
Already, there are fears that moving the Youth Congress to May as the Central Committee would wish would favour the incumbent position holders inside the committee.
Those planning to contest suspect moving the date forward is a ploy by Party leaders to favour the incumbents.
This week the BDP National Youth Information Officer, Ontibile Kgomoyarona, confirmed to The Sunday Standard that the Central Committee has already interested them in moving forward their Congress to May.
“The Central Committee wants the date moved from July to May. They have advised us that as BDP we have a very tight calendar this year. There is the Special Congress, which will be followed by President Mogae’s farewell, then the national Council before the primary elections scheduled for the mid-year. These are time consuming events that need a lot of preparations,” said Kgomoyarona.
He said the Youth League has advised the Central Committee to issue an instruction since as the Youth Committee they do not have the powers to change the dates of a scheduled Congress.
“If we change the dates on our own, it would appear like we are calling a Special Congress. We don’t have those powers,” he said.
He refuted the allegations that change of dates is deliberately calculated to favour a certain group over others.
“There is nothing like that.”
But it is a well known fact that the BDP youth wing has always been a fertile play ground for the party factions.
In the past, elections had either had to be stage managed or even cancelled as a way of suppressing factions that threatened to flare into outright wars.
The Youth Wing is currently chaired by Kefentse Mzwinila, but a long list of young yuppies that have been attracted to the party by the luster of good lifestyles promised by the party has already expressed interest to contest the youth leadership, which is a ticket to sitting on the same table with the party big wigs.
