Onalena Modikwa
9 November 2009
Mmadinare — Members of the Botswana Democratic Party in Mmadinare North East ward resolved on Wednesday that their councillor Oduetse Lejowa should be sacked.
In a charged emergency ward congress, angry party members accused Lejowa of foul play in the recent appointment of nominated councillors. They say he is responsible for the failure of Goabamang Nkoshe - the candidate they had recommended - to make the list of nominated councillors. They said a different person, Onthatile Farmer was nominated with the help of Lejowa. They resolved to take up the issue with senior party officials to stop the newly nominated councillor from going to council next week. The BDP members expressed shock that a person they do not know and who was not available in a meeting to elect possible candidates for nomination got the nod.
They threatened never to vote or instead to defect to an opposition party en-masse if the issue is not resolved to their satisfaction.
At a previous ward meeting held in Mogapi four people, Nkoshe, Botsile Raperekisi, Motlhasedi Phake and Farmer expressed interest in becoming nominated councillors and a secret ballot was used to decide the issue. Nkoshe and Raperekisi tied with five votes each, farmer got two votes while Phake garnered just a single vote. The meeting then settled for Nkoshe, who garnered more votes, in a second round of balloting. BDP members in the ward said that after they settled on the candidate, they had a misunderstanding with Lejowa, who insisted that he would submit all the four names for nomination. The rest of the meeting wanted Nkoshe's name to be taken straight to the District Office in Bobonong.
"We suspect that the councillor had already submitted a name of his choice, more so that Nkoshe was informed that the deadline for submission of applications had already elapsed. We were never even informed about the deadline but our councillor only told us that the President had given us two days extension," one BDP member said. The disgruntled party members stated that they are tired of Lejowa's foul play and demanded an opportunity to choose another nominated councillor urgently because they cannot work with somebody they do not trust. A similar meeting was allegedly held in Robelela where party members queried the nomination of Farmer.
However, Lejowa responded to accusations leveled against him by saying that nomination of councillors is the prerogative of the Minister of Local Government. He said he just heard about the Wednesday ward congress in the streets but he was never officially invited.
"I still have to consult the party first on the issue because I am implicated as the regional secretary." Cabinet minister and Mmadinare MP Ponatshego Kedikilwe told the Monitor that he attended the Mogapi congress in which he explained to the people that the normal principle of rotating the nomination of councillors on the basis of villages should apply.
"That is the fairness we tried to adopt but the Mogapi congress decided that there be a variation and that the slot be awarded to Tobane, Mmadinare North East and Sefhophe wards," the minister said.
That was the last time he dealt with the matter and he does not know what happened afterwards. He was not even aware that the ward is processing a petition that is destined for the Office of the President.
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