Maele summoned for disciplinary hearing

  • BDP questions him over utterances on Khama
  • Party confirms issuing disciplinary letter to Maele


FRANCISTOWN: Former Cabinet Minister and Member of Parliament for Lerala/Maunatlala Prince Maele has been summoned to a disciplinary hearing by Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) over the utterances he made late last year. Maele gave the vote of thanks at a kgotla meeting addressed by the Former President Ian Khama.

Maele who was dropped from the Cabinet last year by President Mokgweetsi Masisi, pledged his support to the former President when expressing his gratitude to Khama for attending the kgotla meeting. The Lerala/Maunatlala MP stated that as his Kgosikgolo his constituency would support and stand by Khama “no matter what.”

In light of the utterances by Maele, BDP members wrote a letter to the party complaining. The concerned BDP members accused Maele of planting seeds of discord within the party using factionalism, regionalism as well as tribalism. Further, in their view the protestors felt that Maele’s utterances were intended to undermine and ridicule President Masisi. “Maele’s words at the kgotla meeting were contemptuous, ridiculed the current President and his entire cabinet. Further, these utterances were made in (sic) a wrong platform and contravenes the BDP general code of conduct as enshrined in the party constitution,” the protestors stated in the letter.

However, the complaint has been viewed as a smear campaign against Maele by his supporters as the complainants included the primary elections loser, Sethabelo Modukanele. Modukanele was defeated by Maele in the BDP primary elections and his inclusion in the complaint letter being viewed as a means to remove his candidacy in order become the BDP candidate for the consituency.

To compound Maele’s growing woes, Lentswe la Batswapong also released a statement raising concerns over the utterances made by the former Minister when giving vote of thanks at a kgotla meeting, “Lentswe la Batswapong distances the tribe from Maele’s utterance noting they do not anyhow represent their position as the tribe therefore should not in anyhow be linked to them”.

Efforts to contact Maele proved futile, as his phone was unreachable. Though he could not be drawn into discussing the contents of the letter summoning the Maele to a disciplinary hearing, Chairperson of Communications and International Relations Kagelelo Banks Kentse confirmed that the BDP had issued a letter to the Former Cabinet Minister, “Indeed I can confirm that Maele has been slapped with a letter summoning him for a disciplinary hearing but I am not in a position to divulge its content. The letter has the charges he is facing and he is expected to appear before the BDP disciplinary committee after Kang congress,” Kentse revealed in an interview.

Maele’s disciplinary hearing letter follows others that were issued to BDP councillors who recently attended a Serowe meeting that was purported to have been called by the party elders. The meeting was used to support presidential candidate Pelonomi Venson Moitoi who is expected to battle it out for the position against the current President Masisi.