The Botswana National Front spokesperson has explained the inordinate delay by party president to appoint three additional members to the Central Committee.
As per the party constitution, the party leader is vested with powers to appoint three additional members.
Almost eight months since the party held its elective congress in Mochudi last July, BNF President, Duma Boko, is still to announce his appointments to the Central Committee.
It has surfaced that Boko took his time for fear of exacerbating what was already an untenable situation when he came into the scene.
In an interview, BNF spokesperson said Boko had to take his time because the party leader was conscious of the turbulent atmosphere that prevailed inside the party when he took the baton last July.
Moeti Mohwasa said he expected Boko to make his appointments soon ÔÇô “certainly within the first quarter of this year.”
“There is peace now inside the party. As a result of reconciliatory efforts led by the party leader people now understand that they need each other,” said Mohwasa.
While in the past BNF leaders used to announce additional appointments within a space of a month after the elective congress, for Boko, owing to the fact that he inherited a deeply divided party that had also expelled a large number of many of its key activists, he has spent his honeymoon preaching peace and extending an olive branch to those disenchanted activists that had been expelled by his immediate predecessor, Otsweletse Moupo.
“The post-Mochudi period has been a time of healing. Given the atmosphere that prevailed after the Molepolole Special Congress, there was need for consultation. The fact of the matter is that we have since gone past that stage. The atmosphere is now conducive for the party leader to make his appointments,” said Mohwasa.
He said while the appointments remain the leader’s prerogative, there is a likelihood that the Central Committee will be consulted.
“But it is his powers. While all the party members are eligible he [Duma Boko] has made it clear that he wants to enhance reconciliation. Naturally there is going to be a bias towards women,” said Mohwasa.
Meanwhile Sunday Standard can confirm that Boko will over the weekend appear before the party Youth League to explain some issues that have lately bedeviled the party.
Among others, these include the public spats between youth leaders and the recently re-admitted members.
Boko will also be asked to explain his inordinate delay in appointing additional members to the Central Committee.
