BDP ready to roll red carpet for Pilane

The ruling Botswana Democratic Party will not hesitate to welcome Sidney Pilane who is having a hard time joining the opposition Botswana Movement for Democracy. Although he helped form BMD, the party has shown no appetite to receive him after he resigned a few years ago. Chairman of the BDP Publicity Committee, Fish Pabalinga said his party does not have a problem with Pilane. “As a responsible party that Batswana must trust we are never discriminatory. We only learn of such practices and stories from other parties,” Pabalinga said answering questions from the media if the BDP would accept Pilane. Pilane’s recent application to rejoin the BMD stirred controversy and caused fault lines within the BMD National Executive Committee. BMD Gaborone North constituency branch has unanimously voted against his application, with the party’s NEC bitterly divided over the issue. “That is the reason we have been in power for so long and we continue to do so today,” said Pabalinga when welcoming Lotty Manyapeza, a fomer firebrand and critic of the BDP during his days at Botswana Congress party. Manyapeza alongside Virginia Masole were officially welcomed into the ruling party membership following their fall out with BCP leadership. The duo joins other notable former BCP members in the likes of Ditiro Majadibodu and Thato Osupile- former Member of Parliament candidate and Youth League Secretary General respectively, who have since defected to the ruling party after the party’s ill-fated Kanye Elective Congress.