Party members, angered by the current BNF leadership, are said to have secretly worked with other political parties in a bid to punish the party, and ended up deliberately causing one of the country’s favourite young and gifted politicians, Kagiso Nazrullah Ntime’s loss at the recent by-elections.
Despite his loss, Ntime acted as a facilitator with the Botswana Music Union (BOMU) and recently managed to quieten down tempers during an intensive feud within the association.
The party members are riled that the BNF top leadership expelled a number of its high placed leaders due to what they termed unruly conduct.
Not taking too kindly to the expulsion, the leaders have been profusely venting out their anger against the party’s top leadership.
Contrary to popular hype and expectancy that the BNF’s highly experienced candidate, Ntime, would take the village ward seat, the BCP emerged victorious with their candidate, University of Botswana’s Seabelo Thekiso.
According to some party organizers, the main opposition party supporters had come from as far as Kanye for the results’ announcement but they were jolted when the tables were turned and the BCP, the country’s slowly rising opposition party, claimed the big prize.
To most, especially elder citizens who were confident of a win from their BNF youth, this development came as a shock, considering the fact that Ntime was the most experienced and qualified of the three candidates and, without doubt, the most popular.
Some prominent BNF members have even stated that even though they had tremendous respect for the young Ntime, the only reason Thekiso won was because of his endorsement by Gaborone Central MP, Dumelang Saleshando.
This, of course, could be dismissed as bitter ramblings of a party that has encountered an unexpected loss.
BNF Secretary General, Mohammed Khan, recently announced the leadership’s decision to issue a group of delegates from the party to form an investigation committee into the matter, as everyone is trying to figure out what might have happened.
Others, meanwhile, are not ruling out voter trafficking.
In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Standard, Ntime claims that even after the devastating loss, the extensive campaigning for 2009 is very much on the agenda.
He is also banking on the fact that most UB students, who form quite a number of his supporters, will be voting in 2009.
As could be expected, he believes that his campaign team had been infiltrated by the party’s betrayers.
“For 2009, I will personally be driving my own campaign team in main strategies, and I want my comrades to know that the struggle continues,” says Ntime.
He claims to have recently received a number of calls from those he alleges had intentionally betrayed the party, telling him that it was unfortunate that he became a victim of circumstances.
According to Ntime, they even went as far as revealing the confidence they had in him as a candidate but apologized because that was not enough to hold them back in their quest to punish their own party.
“It was not a fair loss; it’s not that I am being defensive as a reaction to my loss, I am simply stating facts that my own comrades plotted against one of their own. But I am also grateful for the support and encouragement I have been receiving from my supporters,” says Ntime.
Once president of the Botswana Youth Parliament and currently Executive Secretary of the BNF, Ntime alleges that some prominent BDP and BCP members had apparently voted for him during the bye-elections because they respect politicians of his caliber, especially looking at the fact that he is the future of Botswana politics.
Ntime had allegedly been asked by elders to stand for parliamentary elections but he refused because he felt the need to stand for council elections.
