- ‘the party’s current leadership is decadent, obsolete and disconnected to reality’
While it has always been clear on social media that former Botswana’s Democratic Party’s North West regional chairman Reaboka Mbulawa approved of the party’s poor showing at the polls, the prominent businessman has finally come out and resigned from the party, and did not spare the leadership a lashing.
Mbulawa who sought another run after losing the 2014 and 2019 general elections was this year vetted out along with other two aspirants by the BDP central committee. The party would later field former Chanoga tribal leader, Oateng Sethodi who subsequently lost the Maun East constituency to Botswana Congress Party’s Goretetse Kekgonegile.
Mbulawa has since joined the Botswana National Front (BNF) which is contracting partner in the ruling Umbrella for Democratic Party (UDC). The UDC has ended BDP’s 58-year rule to the jubilant of Mbulawa who believes his former party transformed into what he had not signed up to.
“The BDP’s current leadership is decadent, obsolete and disconnected to reality including the people themselves. Any leadership that does not consult, respect its people and lacks integrity and accountability has overstayed its welcome. This cannot be the BDP we signed up to,” Mbulawa condemned in an interview.
He added, “in a democracy we choose based on if the party works for the people. Injustices and systemic oppression can’t be tolerated, I am of the view of Ngamiland first rhetoric anything that doesn’t work for my people is not tolerated and cannot be left to exist.”
Announcing his resignation on Wednesday, the self-proclaimed ‘Tau Ya Maun’ said his recent experiences within the party in the previous administration are the ones that have lead him to the crossroads. Mbulawa lamented that he has faced numerous challenges and injustices that have tested his resolve and commitment to the BDP.
“As a former chairman of the North West Region, I dedicated myself to the principles of democracy, integrity and service to our people. Yet I find myself at the juncture where the love and loyalty I have held for the BDP have been met with disappointment and disillusionment,” he lamented.
Mbulawa decried that he has invested his time, resources and heart into an organization that, in recent years, treated him in ways that have caused both personal and public humiliation.
Meanwhile a number of BDP members who were sympathizing with Mbulawa as well as his other die-hard followers are also reported to soon follow suit and join the opposition. They are expected to be welcomed along Mbulawa during his launch in Maun soon.
“For my 5335 votes in 2014 and 6400 in 2019 am sure you saw growth and a guy who moves with the people, of course we have numbers coming with the People’s Lion, that’s a fact,” he confirmed.
In conclusion, Mbulawa expressed his confident in the new UDC government, their mode of operation pleased that new administration has hit the ground running on issues of human rights and justice, issues of economic recovery as well as the President’s SONA which highlighted a lot of reforms. “It is not business as usual and that monotony has been broken, that’s hope and that’s good radiance, a light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.
