Kenneth Banda
26 March 2008
Gaborone — Itumeleng 'Shine' Ngakaetsile is exacting revenge on the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) after he was locked out of the party primaries for the Selebi-Phikwe East parliamentary seat. The politician has said he will not support the BCP candidate, Nzwaligwa Nzwaligwa. He has vowed to openly work against Nzwaligwa and ensure that he loses in the general elections.
Ngakaetsile took the BCP to court after he was locked out of the primary elections. He lost last week leaving Nzwaligwa as the party candidate. A bitter Ngakaetsile has vowed to thwart Nzwaligwa's campaign as a way of getting back at the party. "Completely (sic), I can't support him (Nzwaligwa). I am going to fight by all means to ensure that he doesn't win. I am not afraid of being expelled. What the party did is undemocratic," Ngakaetsile fumed.
He added that the BCP betrayed him after spending so much in the party. "So I have to wage a war of revenge so that the party suffers the consequences," he added. Ngakaetsile said while the court's decision is binding, he still feels that the BCP constitution needs to be revised as it stifles party democracy. "The court has made a ruling and I will abide by the decision. However, our constitution has loopholes; the central committee has the power to handpick anyone. This is undemocratic," Ngakaetsile said. He believes the party should have allowed him to exercise his democratic right and contest the elections."I feel we should have gone to the polls. The court only considered our constitution and not the procedure followed in vetting candidates. I feel our process is undemocratic," Ngakaetsile said.
The politician's future at the BCP seems to be hanging in the balance. Already party publicity chief and Gaborone Central MP, Dumelang Saleshando said there is no way that Ngakaetsile could harm Nzwaligwa's campaign while he is still in the BCP. "I don't think he can do that when he is still a member of the party. He has already inconvenienced us by taking the party to court," Saleshando said.
He added that he thought Ngakaetsile would revert to normalcy after losing the court case. "He has to understand that life doesn't start and end with elections," Saleshando said.He added that Ngakaetsile's court defeat meant that Nzwaligwa would be launched as the party's candidate.
"It has always been our view that we (party) complied with the rules and regulations (related to vetting)."Ngakaetsile was vetted out of the Selebi-Phikwe East BCP primaries with former councillor, Modise 'Super' Thipe. The move sparked protests from the two.Prior to the decision to vet him out, Ngakaetsile had alleged that he was being victimised by the party leadership in Selebi-Phikwe East.
He claimed that there was a ploy to weed out BCP members seen as Nzwaligwa's foes.
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