BCP COUNCILLORS WALK OUT OF MEETING Six Botswana Congress Party (BCP) councillors on November 25 walked out of the Francistown full council meeting. Leading the protest, Councillor Tabengwa Tabengwa of Ikageleng ward called on the mayor, Mr James Kgalajwe to explain reasons behind postponement of the Francistown West bye-election, which was scheduled for November 23. Mr Tabengwa accused the mayor of being a dictator when he refused to listen to their concerns, adding that the ruling party could not make changes to the rule of law so that it could suit their own interest. “The rule of law is meant to govern all the people not to be favourable to a certain group of people,” he stressed. Councillor Lazarus Tlou of Itekeng ward also argued that in democratic governance, the rule of law should be respected. As a concerned group, the councillors believed that they should be given audience on their grievances about the bye-election that were marred by controversy. Calling them to order, Mr Kgalajwe explained that the council standing orders did not allow for any other business to be discussed before the mayor’s communication and added that he was not privy to the issue that he was being forced to address. He stated that the little that he knew was that the issue they were complaining about was still before the courts of law. Also, he noted that he did not have the power or authority to explain postponement of elections and referred the concerned councillors to take up the matter with the Office of the President and emphasised that the BCP councillors’ behaviour was improper. The council session, however, continued without the councillors and the mayor noted that throughout the week long session, he was going to stand by the standing orders…
Posted on: Tue, 26 Nov 2013 05:50:30 +0000
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