Oliver Modise
9 July 2009
Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development, Kavis Kario has slammed South African poet Mzwakhe Mbuli for criticising President Ian Khama at the launch of ruling party chairman Daniel Kwelagobe a week ago.
During Kwelagobe's launch Mbuli, a poet and musician invited to perform at the event, remarked that if Khama tried to run the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) alone he will become a victim like Thabo Mbeki, who lost the ANC polls to current South African President Jacob Zuma.
Kario, a Central Committee member and a Nkate/Merafhe faction activist, was fuming as he described Mbuli as a former convict who had no business meddling in BDP politics.
"Do we need foreign singers to question the integrity of our president?" he said.
He added in an interview with Mmegi yesterday that those who invited Mbuli were partly to blame for his utterances.
A former member of the Kedikilwe/Kwelagobe camp, Kario accused members of his former faction of lacking the foresight to see that they were decampaigning the President and exposing the BDP leadership to attacks ahead of the Central Committee elections at the party congress to be held in Kanye next week.
"President Khama and the party leadership have become targets of abuse.
"People are out to get us," he said and he called on party members to be vigilant.
The media was also not spared as Kario charged that private newspapers are fuelling the bickering within the ruling party.
He said that the private media has always lobbied for opposition parties to oust the BDP and as such was using the Kwelagobe versus Tebelelo Seretse contest to destroy the BDP.
Like party secretary general Jacob Nkate, Kario strongly disapproves of Kwelagobe's re-election as party chairman.
"It's inconceivable that an individual, who has served for 37 years can add value when party structures collapsed under his stewardship," he argued.
He said Kwelagobe has played his part, arguing that the party leadership needs to be renewed.
He said that he has faith in Seretse's abilities, adding that the latter proved herself while she was an MP and Cabinet minister. She also did well resuscitating party structures while she served as chairperson of the Women's Wing.
"We can't develop leadership if people stay on forever," he said.
"We can't encourage a founder syndrome," he said
Kario criticised Kwelagobe for going public that he would suggest to President Khama to appoint a woman vice president after the October general elections.
"It's abnormal that a leader will announce his advice to a president at a political rally," he said.
Kario says he wants Kwelagobe relegated to the back seat to play an advisory role as a party elder.
He said that those clinging to the idea that Kwelagobe "can still add value" are living in denial, adding that the whole notion is retrogressive.
Contacted for comment on Kario's remarks, the BDP strongman was unmoved but said: "I have no comment, I have no comment."
In a separate interview, Molepolole South chairman, Kabo Morwaeng said that as far as he was concerned Mbuli's visit was a success.
"If there is anybody complaining about him they have to launch a formal complaint to us as a constituency," Morwaeng said.
"If he is a BDP member he knows how a complaint is laid," he added.
He said that there was no sincerity in Kario's concerns, arguing that there was nothing wrong in what the poet uttered.
"We were happy with his performance," he said.
On another matter Kario has vehemently denied that he ever tried to throw a punch at a legislator during their publicized argument at the Recreation Bar at the parliamentary village.
'We argued yes but I never even attempted to throw a punch. How can I ever do that,he said.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Mmegi/The Reporter. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
