Botswana People's Party
|
Botswana People's Party
|
|
|---|---|
| Leader | Motlatsi Molapisi |
| Secretary-General | Onalenna Chabaya |
| Founded | 1960 |
| Headquarters | Shango house, Francistown |
| Ideology | Pan Africanism |
The Botswana People's Party (BPP) was formed during the colonial era, in December 1960. The first modern nationalist parties emerged in the early 1960s. As a result of the disappointment with the Legislative Council, the Bechuanaland People's Party (BPP) under the leadership of Dr Kgalemang T. Motsete - an accomplished music composer and educationist - was the first mass party to agitate for full independence not later than 1964.
Former treason trialist (under the Union of South Africa Terrorism Act) Mr. Motsamai Mpho was the secretary general. Internal dissention on the eve of the first national elections in 1965 resulted in a split and the birth of a new party - the Bechuanaland Independence Party under the leadership of Mpho. Motsete attempted to retain a small group of the BPP's old guard but lost power to Mr. Phillip Matante. The first general elections were held in March 1965 and the Bechuanaland Democratic Party (now Botswana Democratic Party) won in a landslide victory, taking 28 of the 31 contested seats. The BPP (then Bechuanaland Peoples Party) won three seats.
The party was formed in 1960 as the 'Bechuanaland People's Party under the leadership of Kgalemang T. Motsete and Philip Matante. The party's formation was indirectly stimulated by the flow of South African exiles following the Sharpeville massacre in March 1960. The party's structure was based on the African National Congress but it soon fell witness to in-fighting. The party soon became an opposition party to the traditionalist Botswana Democratic Party, led by Seretse Ian Khama. The Bechuanaland People's Party was formed by Batswana who had political exposure and influence from Pan-Africanism and the South African political liberation movements namely the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan African Congress (PAC). Kwame Nkruma and his Ghana’s independence further spurred the BPP on. The main objective of the party was to liberate the people of the then Bechuanaland Protectorate from colonialism whose objective was achieved in September 1966 when the country became independent.
The first president of the BPP was Philip Matante who became the first Member of Parliament for Francistown and leader of the opposition during independence in 1966. As the vanguard of Botswana revolution, the BPP subscribes to the following principles: the promotion of unity on the basis of equality; of all ethnic and/or language groups in a democratic state with no social, economic, racial, tribal or religious discrimination.
...
Wikipedia