 Opposition welcomes Malema's offer to topple BDP Julius Malema, the president of South Africa's ruling African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) wants the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) government toppled. [He]
And he has offered assistance to Botswana's opposition to topple the Ian Khama-led regime. The opposition has accepted – cautiously. The opposition has welcomed with caution an offer by African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius Malema to help them topple the government of President Ian Khama. Malema was quoted in the South African press last Sunday calling for regime change in Botswana and saying that the ANCYL will establish a task force that will work with a united opposition against what he referred to as the 'puppet regime' of Khama. "The ANC Youth League will also establish a Botswana command team, which will work towards uniting all oppositional forces in Botswana to oppose the puppet regime of Botswana, led by the Botswana Democratic Party," Malema said. The controversial youth leader also said the BDP is a neo-colonialist stooge and a security threat to Africa. In a press statement released yesterday, Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) chairman Nehemiah Modubule said the international community is now embracing the need, and inevitability of regime change. "Finally the imminent mortality of the BDP government has attracted international attention. We urge more organisations and individuals to come on board and support the opposition partnership advocating for change in Botswana in 2014," he said. Modubule said they will engage Malema and his league in a more detailed dialogue regarding the kind of assistance his organisation can offer, adding that as the opposition they welcome all assistance and support, locally and abroad, "from only those who support our principle of removing the BDP government through democratic, legitimate and constitutional means at the polls," he said. Likewise the Botswana National Front spokesman Moeti Mohwasa said in principle there is nothing wrong with the ANC helping them, but added that they cannot comment further on the matter until they have a close look at the assistance being offered, then "we will see how it fits into our programme and then we will adopt it," he said. His Botswana Congress Party (BCP) counterpart, Taolo Lucas said they recognise the ANC as a political force in southern Africa and that they will assess any assistance coming from the party and "where it's found that we need such assistance we shall act accordingly," he said. For his part, BNF youth leader Kagiso Ntime said the Malema diatribe against the BDP government is a follow-up to his (Ntime) speech at the ANCYL congress held in Johannesburg this year in June. He said at the congress he preached on the discourse of political left and rallied the African political youth to reject any political elements that are imperialist stooges like Botswana government. He said by agreeing to host AFRICOM, the United States African Command the Khama administration showed that it is a willing pawn of imperialist forces. "Since that speech I have been getting a lot of invitations. End of this month I will be addressing the Young Communist League of the South African Communist Party (SACP) in South Africa. I have also been invited to address Zanu PF youth, SWAPO youth among others with a view to empower the African youth on leftist politics and pro-socialist ideas," he said. Contacted for comment, BDP secretary general Kentse Rammidi said the ruling party has an established relationship with ANC as a political party. He said it would be inappropriate to engage the ANCYL in the media. "We have noted their (ANCYL) comments and we will follow appropriate channels to address this issue," he said. -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . |
