BPF still eyes State power-Butale
Ryder Gabathuse | Monday February 13, 2023 06:00
He was responding to a question as to what really stands between the BPF and State power. He says any political party without that ambition ceases to exist in its form or maybe it will deviate and become a pressure group.
When the opposition BPF an offshoot of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) was conceived in 2019, the aim was such that it should democratically oust the BDP from its decades in power.
Former president Ian Khama who ahead of 2019 General Election broke ranks with his successor President Mokgweetsi Masisi played a crucial role in the formation of the opposition outfit that took his former party head on.
He pioneered at the party as a patron. Today, Khama is on record indicating that he was considering the idea of availing himself for the presidency of the BPF although his critics feel that the move might spoil the already troubled fortunes of the BPF.
There is however, no firm commitment that Khama would indeed contest for the party presidency. Butale, another former Masisi ally, fell out with the BDP at the party primaries ahead of the 2019 General Election.
At some stage, the outspoken politician was suspended from the BDP for an alleged misconduct. He had lost the parliamentary primaries to a newcomer Simon Moabi at the Tati-West constituency and after his loss, he took the party to court for redress and still fail the bid. Today, Butale is at the helm of a political party that missed an opportunity to exert itself and fulfil its dream of ousting the BDP at the 2019 polls.
“The BPF is a bonafide political party in Botswana’s political arena. Since our formation in 2019, we have always had regime change and attainment of State power as our number one objective and nothing has deviated us from the objective,” Butale explained to Mmegi this week. He added: “You know politics in Africa follows a predictable pattern that the ruling parties will always target opposition parties, particularly those that the ruling parties feel are a real danger to their staying power.”
He feels the BPF is no exception to this rule and hence the treatment by the ruling party.
He illuminated that what is happening now is that the BDP targets some of their members to decamp to them. And he however, finds that acceptable in politics. What he however, finds alarming is that some of their members are being targeted through unconventional ways, meaning that they are promised positions and other things that really veer off from what can be considered to be fair recruitment.
“Not only that, some of our members have also been seemingly enticed by the ruling party to cause instability in our party in that they are being persuaded to stay in our party for a while and in the meantime cause us instability as much as possible when they decamp this year, or just before the elections,” he explained this as something that stands between the BPF and State power.
To him, all is fair in love and in war. To the BPF leaders and activists, the ruling party targets for recruitment whether fair or foul, “what remains is that no amount of recruitment from their cadres will deter regime change.” For the ordinary man in the street, Butale says can only be persuaded to delay regime change, if his/her interests are being met by the ruling BDP.
He warned that people should not assume that only BPF members will be enticed by the BDP regime, but all opposition political activists, which are a threat to the BDP are going to lose their members in the coming months as they go into the elections. He alleged that the ruling party has been ‘receiving kickbacks’ from companies awarded tenders of various works.
These funds he further alleged are used to recruit from the opposition ranks. “What I’m saying is that by means fair or foul, this money is used to empower the BDP and disempower the opposition. These funds are from dubious sources. We can’t just sit and start saying as the BDP destroy this country,” he alleged. Even though the ground is so tilted against the BPF, “we are going to fight in the 2024 General Election with everything that we have despite the ruling party’s massive resource.” With youth unemployment at alarming rate, education standards continuing to fall dismally, Butale observes that young people can’t see any hope in this country.
“The only way we can pursue these young people is to address these concerns. They will not be enticed with money. Solutions to their long-term problems are what have to happen,” he said. Meanwhile, Butale is concerned that the country continues to experience shortage of medicines. In some instances, he indicated that there are no medicines in our health facilities. In his view, corruption has reached astronomical levels despite that President Masisi had promised to fight corruption and it seems institutions that fight corruption have been paralysed with the suspension of the substantive director general of the DCEC, Tymon Katlholo. Responding to allegations that his party was fond of buying cadres from opposition parties, BDP secretary-general Kavis Kario cited Article 6 of the party constitution that speaks to membership responsibility.
It reads that membership of the party entails a heavy responsibility that demands high political and moral qualities as well as selfless dedication to the cause of the party, which is the cause of the people. He also invoked Article 7 of the party constitution, which speaks to the issue of membership requirements. “Membership of the party is voluntary and open to all Batswana who accept the party’s policies and programmes of action and are not members of other political parties or organisations whose policies and aspirations are incompatible with those of the Party,” reads the party constitution.
“Associate members shall be persons, including corporate persons who wish to demonstrate their sympathy to the party and its objectives. Individual associate members shall pay an annual membership subscription fee as prescribed from time to time.” Perhaps, evidence that influences the opposition to accuse the ruling party of using underhand tactics to recruit from them include amongst others the recruitment of former UDC MP for Tonota Pono Moatlhodi who was rewarded with the position of Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly. Aubrey Lesaso, formerly UDC MP for Shoshong was rewarded with Assistant Minister position after he was recruited from the BDP.