Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) Chairman and Member of Parliament for Lobatse, Nehemiah Modubule, says local media houses are sabotaging the BMD as well as the umbrella party by publishing false reports.
Addressing the media on Wednesday at BMD head office, Modubule said the media has been negatively reporting about the opposition bilateral talks that are still ongoing as well as the constitution of the umbrella party. He cited stories which were carried out by Mmegi and Weekend Post newspapers sometime in September this year.
He labeled the reports malicious and added that some people have hidden agendas on the opposition bilateral talks.
“We need each other as opposition for power in 2014 and we cannot recruit members from the opposition,” said Modubule.
Modubule said BMD has agreed, together with the Botswana National Front (BNF), Botswana Congress Party (BCP) and the Botswana Peoples Party (BPP) to use the Umbrella model to contest the 2014 general elections. He dismissed allegations that the BMD is making difficult demands in the negotiations for the elections.
Modubule said the establishment of policies is going to unify them as the umbrella party. He stated that he has met with other chairmen of opposition parties.
Answering a question from a journalist on the appointment of the President of the umbrella party, he said it is still premature to reveal the criteria they are going to use.
“The umbrella party is not a marriage for convenience but it will be used to defeat the ruling party,” said Modubule.
He said that opposition unity is done to call for change of regime and added that failure to that means continuation of the ruling party. He, however, said he was not certain about MP Tawana Moremi’s official membership of BMD.
Meanwhile, Councilor Dipogiso Bokadi for Hunhukwe Ward, Kgalagadi North on Thursday officially joined BMD from BDP. He said he was unhappy with the coming law which will prevent crossing over to another party.
“I want to speak freely in council meetings bringing burning issues from the Batswana we are representing,” said Bokadi.
He, however did not reveal the details of his resignation letter. He stated that he is in the process of consulting his ward members about his defecting.
