Boko sitting on powder keg
Ryder Gabathuse | Monday July 4, 2022 06:00
Emerging from a weekend of political events in Palapye where Boko asserted himself as the UDC president and slapped his deputy Dumelang Saleshando who is also BCP president and secretary-general, Goretetse Kekgonegile with suspension for their ‘errant’ political behaviour.
The duo’s problem is that they have been allegedly speaking ill about the UDC and Boko was worried that they have particularly, “destroyed and belittled the coalition”.
UDC is a tri-party coalition consisting of the BCP, BNF and Botswana Peoples Party (BPP).
Whilst the BPP is a passive partner with nothing really to complain about, the BCP has been hyperactive and critical of Boko’s leadership who is also the BNF president.
The BCP’s contention has chiefly been that Boko’s leadership is tantamount to dictatorship as it’s characterised by unilateralism and disregard for the rule of law. Another BCP concern is that under Boko the UDC was not keen to hold an elective congress to usher in the new leadership.
After a protracted battle between the BCP and Boko, it now seems the latter has silenced his nemesis.
Meanwhile BCP vice president, Taolo Lucas said in an interview that the suspension of two executives from his party shows poor governance issues in the UDC.
“The purported suspension of BCP president and secretary-general from the UDC is a clear and unambiguous testimony that the UDC is poorly governed and mismanaged. It represents not only leadership failure but also gross inability to navigate coalition politics,” Lucas told Mmegi this week.
It is his view that all and sundry will know that the UDC relationship is a relationship of political parties which parties are independent and autonomous entities.
To him, any attempt by a coalition arrangement to control, direct or discipline members of partner organisations, “is an overreach that should and shall never be condoned. Access to individual members by a coalition can only be done through the parties concerned”.
“Actually to attempt to suspend the president of the BCP and the secretary-general is the height of disrespect to our party. The UDC is essentially saying it seeks to divide us by separating the members from its leaders. Ba batla mmele mme ba kgaola tlhogo. (They want the body, but they are cutting off the head) It’s absurd. We view the purported suspensions as an attack on the BCP as an institution,” he highlighted.
Lucas, who is also a Member of Parliament for Bobirwa, indicated that as the BCP consults on the various courses of action available to them, they wish, “to call upon our members to remain calm but vigilant. Our members should not allow anyone or entity to sow seeds of division and discord among them”.
Regarding the Alliance for Progressives (AP) coalition, Lucas conceded that they have had bilateral discussions and compared notes on possible working relationship going to 2024 general elections.
Nothing concrete has come out yet, “but we are still hopeful that other opposition parties could avail themselves for discussions on opposition cooperation for the 2024 general election. The ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) has so badly managed our country that there is urgent need to remove them from power.”
It is not only the BCP that Boko will have to contend with as there are two more hurdles that are destined to put his leadership prowess to test. The two internal trouble spots are slowly becoming a mountain and might prove difficult for the UDC president to climb.
First it’s a lobby group led by one Baatlhodi ‘Bucs’ Molatlhegi that has diametrically lost trust in the Boko-led administration to the extent that some of them have gone to court on behalf of the lobby group.
They fear that the impending BNF congress pencilled for July is not going to be free and fair as the current party leadership and the Boko-led lobby group is set to win by hook or crook.
Differences between the two BNF lobby groups have now metamorphosed into adversarial relationship where trust has now become a rare commodity. Literally, there is no love lost amongst comrades who now believe it’s only a court of law that can bring sanity to their party.
As if that was not enough, three executive members of the BNF wrote a complaint letter to the party raising similar issues pointed out by the Molatlhegi lobby group otherwise known as Team Bucs raising doubts about Boko’s leadership and fearing that the impending party elective congress is not going to be free and fair at all.
In a letter authored and signed by BNF vice president Prince Dibeela, secretary for political education Shawn Nthaile and Peter Powell, secretary for economic affairs, the three executive BNF members blasted their party. Dibeela has confirmed that the letter is authentic.
“...It has become clear that the minutes are not a true reflection of our meetings. The minutes of the various meetings of the central committee are written in a way that is doctored to wean out certain issues. Just to cite one example, at the Mahalapye central committee, members challenged Boko for unlawfully appointing two members to the central committee without consultation with the vice president and other members of the executive.”
The trio contends that such appointment is suspect two months before the elective congress. Effectively, they have written, Boko has single-handedly appointed five people during the life span of the current central committee.
“In the past few months, the party has had elections for the Women’s League and the Youth League, both of which were fraught with irregularities. The Women’s congress was held at the end of March and immediately thereafter, there was a protest lodged against the elections,” reads the complaint letter in part.
The trio is worried that the general secretary has until recently, conveniently kept the letter of protest and the so-called winner of the elections has been allowed to attend central committee meetings, thus legitimising her incumbency.
“We have raised it many times and we state it here again that there will not be a free and fair election as long as the office staff remain the same. They openly participate in party forums, bullying members to support Boko and disparaging anyone who supports different candidates,” party executives declared in their letter.
Their main worry is that these are the people who are entrusted with managing party database, the registration and the entire process leading to the congress.
“When we raise these things, Boko becomes argumentative and condescending in his defence of his operatives. He even says that the fact that these individuals were caught working in the middle of the night in the party office was normal and did not constitute misconduct,” they declared.
They also believe that the current central committee has mutated into a pro-Boko faction.
In the end they feel strongly that the BNF should get an unbiased body to facilitate its elections.
When quizzed about the letter authored by the party’s three executives, BNF spokesperson Justin Hunyepa could only say: “If the letter turns out to be authentic, it will be unfortunate and regrettable as internal issues are not shared with the media before internal processes are exhausted.”
University of Botswana (UB) lecturer in politics and administrative studies, Adam Mfundisi says UDC, as people’s project must disentangle itself from a cult of leadership.
He is of the view that the general membership must take the movement from the warring factions.
“The constitution of the UDC must be implemented in order to usher democratic and accountable leadership. As it stands since the suspension of Saleshando and Kekgonegile, in the short term, peace in the movement is not attainable. The leadership of both parties has sharpened knives for protracted conflict,” posited the UB academic.
“Currently, the relationship between the dominant parties is irretrievable. Old rivalries are surfacing and dogs’ wars from both sides are ready for political battles. UDC is the main loser in this internecine tensions and conflicts,” he added.
Personally, Mfundisi is convinced, “we must witness the proliferation of two opposition coalitions- AP-BCP and BNF- Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF)- BPP respectively. The BDP can still be defeated if a progressive constitutional order is realised. A free and fair election can result in the defeat of the ruling party. The BDP is not invisible.”
The political analyst has posited that the UDC rank and file members must take the movement from the leadership.
He feels one political formation should be realised to get rid of partisanship and polarisation afflicting the coalition. Additionally, he noted that if that is not feasible in the short term, “elders and veterans should mediate. And the future UDC constitution must provide for conflict resolution mechanisms. UDC CC and other structures must meet frequently to deal with controversial issues.”
He was quick to admit that there are multiple sources of conflict in the UDC. One being the UDC maiden constitution is a major source of conflict as it sets a structure that entrenched the BNF and its leadership as the de facto controller of the movement.
He sees the trappings of power at play. He believes what was a temporary arrangement has been translated into a permanent one.
“Lack of internal and intra UDC democracy exacerbate the explosive political environment. Additionally, weak political leadership bent on pursuing self- interests and entitlement,” he said.
Mfundisi further blamed infrequent meetings of the central committee of the UDC to be contributing to lack of trust and confidence. He emphasised that communication is power and it defeats fear and anxiety.