President Lt Gen Ian Khama was this week up in arms, and African National Congress (ANC) youth wing president Julius Malema was his target.
Khama warned Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) that if it does not instil discipline among its members, they will turn out like Malema.
The president was addressing a well attended BDP political rally on Friday where he tarred party breakaway members with the same brush as Malema who he dismissed as an ill-disciplined young man.
Khama said that from the moment Malema started speaking out of turn and attacking other party cadres, he knew that trouble was brewing.
The president said for a long time, Malema was out of order but the ANC failed to discipline him, instead he was treated with kid gloves, glorified as a revolutionary and allowed to spiral out of control.
Khama said Malema’s foot-in-the-mouth gaffes had jeopardised President Jacob Zuma’s reconciliation efforts in Zimbabwe.
He was referring to an incident when Malema publicly endorsed ZANU-PF while dismissing the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Khama has always been seen to be hostile to ZANU PF and sympathetic to the MDC.
He told the BDP rally that he was recently shocked by Malema’s indiscipline when he insulted a BBC reporter and chased him out of a press conference. He said it was fortunate that the ANC leadership finally decided to drag Malema before its disciplinary committee to answer for his misconduct.
Khama said he would not tolerate such Malemaesque indiscipline in the BDP that is why he will continue to crack the whip. He likened Malema to BDP members who broke away to form the Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD).
Khama said that there was need to instil discipline because there is a lot of indiscipline within the BDP.
“If discipline is not applied then democrats will behave like Malema,”
Khama said that MPs Botsalo Ntuane, Wynter Mmolotsi, Guma Moyo, Sidney Pilane and Kabo Morwaeng have no discipline.
He dismissed the new party as a gaggle of power hungry louts who had no interest in furthering the interests of the BDP.
Earlier on, the Minister of Education and Skills Development, Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi said that it was not surprising that BMD members were attacking the BDP leadership because some of them are said to be friends with Malema.
