Uphill battle awaits Moswaane
Lebogang Mosikare | Thursday March 7, 2024 08:33
In October, Moswaane will probably face one of the toughest political battles of his life since he decided to ditch the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) for the Botswana People’s Party (BPP), a UDC affiliate.
Moswaane will slug it out with Nthusi Chimbise of the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) and unknown BDP activist because the latter is yet to hold its primaries to choose candidates for the 2024 polls.
In an interview with Mmegi, Chimbise said that he will not be a pushover and is ready to cause an upset in October.
When asked how the BCP’s campaigns are going in the constituency, Chimbise said they were going very well.
“Our campaigns are going very well. The reception that we have received from voters across the constituency is very encouraging. We have thoroughly prepared ourselves unlike in the past. We believe that the fact that the BCP held its primaries early in the constituency has enabled us to interact more with voters as compared to our opponents who are yet to hold theirs. This has enabled us to ferry voters to polling stations to register for the elections during the first voters’ registration phase. I am also of the view that all the candidates of the BCP in Francistown West are credible and dependable people who are attractive to voters,” said Chimbise.
Chimbise is also not deterred by the low numbers (371) he polled in 2019 when he was a Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) parliamentary candidate.
“Various factors caused me to be voted by few people. You should remember that before I decided to represent the BPF, I was a loyal BCP member who had campaigned early in the constituency together with all the BCP councillors who were seconded to the UDC. However, dynamics changed quickly and I was told that Francistown West has been allocated to the Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD). The BMD and BCP then made a quid pro quo agreement whereupon the BMD will forfeit the Maun West constituency to the president of the BCP, Dumelang Saleshando. It was also agreed that while parliamentary candidate for Francistown West will come from the BPP, the BCP councillors who I have been working very well with for a considerable period of time will represent the UDC in Francistown West. I then decided to represent the BPF as its parliamentary candidate because I thought that I had made inroads in the constituency. This contributed to my low number of votes during the general elections,” said Chimbise, who later retraced his steps to the BCP.
To prove his point, Chimbise said that the BCP has a noticeable presence in Francistown West because in the 2014 general elections, it garnered 3461 votes although it lost the constituency to the BDP which was voted by 5305 people.
In 2014, the UDC was voted by 950 people while an independent candidate got 157 votes.
By then the BCP was not affiliated to the UDC like in the 2019 elections.
“The 2014 and 2019 election results show that the BCP has a considerable following in Francistown West while parties associated with the UDC have a negligible following in the constituency. This has emboldened us to work extra hard because Francistown West is a winnable constituency,” said Chimbise.
For his part, Moswaane said that he will retain his parliamentary seat if the polls are free and fair.
To his followers, Moswaane is not a political novice but a hardcore politician who knows the pulse of the people hence many epithets are used to describe him.
Some refer to Moswaane as “the voice of the voiceless” while he is referred to as “a good grassroots politician and strategist” in some quarters.
For most of his life, Moswaane was a BDP activist before he joined the UDC. He first defected from the BDP in 2009 and convincingly won the Monarch South by-election.
He defected from the BDP in 2009 after he felt that it (BDP) did not address his grievances following his loss to the late Baboni Mosalagae in Monarch South primaries.
He had complained that the primaries were marred by a lot of irregularities.
By then Mosalagae had defeated Moswaane by a single vote after the former garnered 155 votes to the latter’s 154.
Moswaane then defeated Mosalagae in a by-election when he stood for the by-election as an independent candidate.
Following his by-election win over Mosalagae, Moswaane retraced his steps to the BDP and stood as its parliamentary candidate in Francistown West in 2014.
This was after the death of President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s elder brother, Tshelang Masisi, who was then the MP for the area.
In August 2020, Moswaana dropped a bombshell by resigning from the BDP. He cited the high unemployment rate and corruption in Botswana as some of his reasons for resigning from the BDP.
In April 2021, Moswaane was warmly welcomed into the fold of the Botswana People’s Party (BPP), an affiliate of the UDC.
There is an idiom that says a cat has nine lives. The million dollar question now is “will Moswaane emulate a cat and manage to retain the Francistown West constituency outside the BDP?”
Some people say that Moswaane has longshot prospects of retaining the constituency outside the BDP following his decision to join the UDC.
For example, in the 2019 general elections, Moswaane won the constituency with 4928 votes. He was followed by the UDC, AP, BPF and an independent candidate with 3138, 763, 371 and 40 votes respectively.
Then, the UDC was represented by Lenyatso Mbaakanyi, who was deployed by the BPP to the UDC.
At ward level, all councillors who represented the UDC in Francistown West were BCP activists.
This was before the BCP and UDC’s acrimonious fallout.
In Monarch North ward, the BDP snatched the ward with 639 votes followed by the UDC with 615 votes. Only 24 votes separated the winner and the second best candidate.
The AP, and BPF garnered 159 and 118 respectively.
Monarch South ward was won by the UDC with 749 votes while the BDP came second with 749 votes. The UDC beat the BDP with 44 votes. The AP, BPF, BMD and two independent candidates were voted by 273, 144, 34, 74 and 11 votes respectively.
In Tatitown ward, the BDP won the ward with 508 votes followed by the UDC with 455 votes. There was a margin of 53 votes between the BDP and UDC.
The BPF and AP were voted by 131 and 95 people respectively.
In Botsalano ward, the BDP bagged the ward with 422 votes followed by the UDC with 395 votes. The winner and the second best party were separated by a paltry 27 votes.
The AP, BPF and an independent candidate got 173, 93 and 132 votes respectively.
The BDP won the Kanana ward with 800 votes followed by the UDC with 727 votes. The difference between the winner and second placed candidate of the UDC was 73 votes.
The AP, BPF and an independent candidate were preferred by 231, 56 and 63 voters respectively.
Moselewapula ward was won by the UDC with 579 voters while the BDP came in second place with 550 votes. A razor margin of 29 votes separated the winner and second placed party.
The AP and BPF were voted by 196 and 43 voters respectively.
Following the 2019 general elections, some political dynamics happened in Francistown West.
Moswaane was followed by councillor Kago Philime of Kanana ward to the BPP. In the same vein, nominated councillor Gilbert Boikhutso who was a BDP activist followed Moswaane and Philime to the BPP.
A by-election soon occurred in Moselewapula following the death of councillor Reuben Kethoilwe.
The UDC, represented by a BPP cadre Gift Tebo, won the ward with 336 votes followed by Mmoloki Wairi of the BCP with 334 votes. Only a thin margin of five votes separated Tebo and Wairi.
It is now a well known fact that the BCP has ditched the UDC and will contest the 2024 elections in cooperation with Botswana Labour Party (BLP).
The BCP and BDP have long had functioning structures in Francistown West even prior to the 2019 polls while UDC affiliated parties have minimal or no functioning structures in the constituency.
The statistics mentioned above in wards in Francistown West show that parties aligned to the UDC polled low numbers of voters in 2019 as compared to the BCP and BDP.
Henceforth, a debate has ensued whether or not it will be a tall order for Moswaane to retain Francistown West with parties that have little or no significant presence in the constituency.
The only issue that in Moswaane’s view could stand in his re-election bid is the ‘rigging of elections by the BDP in connivance with the country’s electoral management body, Independent Electoral Commission (IEC)’.
The opposition in Botswana is still smarting from their 2019 electoral loss which they still insist happened as a result of the connivance of the IEC and BDP.
Both the IEC and BDP have refuted these allegations. The BDP says that the allegations peddled by the opposition are just a charade because they took their queries to court and lost.
Moswaane is also unnerved by the IEC’s recent benchmarking trip to Zimbabwe.
He is of the view that the trip by the IE to Zimbabwe is just another smokescreen to aid and abet the BDP to rig the hotly anticipated 2024 plebiscite.
The IEC and BDP have again refuted these allegations with the latter labelling the opposition as cry babies who want to curry favour with voters by peddling falsehoods.
Moswaane continued: “I respect my opponents across the political spectrum but I am confident of retaining my seat with the UDC. I am currently carrying out a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threat) analysis of my opponents in order to develop a political strategy to overcome them in October. My only fear is that the BDP wants to rig the upcoming polls in October hence the recent benchmarking trip by the IEC to Zimbabwe. If the playing field is going to be level in October, I have nothing to worry about.”
While Mmegi conducted this interview on Wednesday, opposition parties had gathered in Gaborone where they told the nation about their plan to hold a massive demonstration to counter any plans by the BDP led government to rig this year’s general elections.
Asked why he thinks he deserves another chance in the August House, Moswaane said: “I deserve to be in Parliament for the third time because I had a strong personal contact with people in my constituency. I have tirelessly worked with these community members and I consulted them thoroughly before taking their concerns to Parliament. I also gave them feedback whenever I came back from Parliament about all the things that they have sent me to do,” Moswaane underscored.
He explained that he fought for community developments projects in his constituency to be implemented.
“For example, the increase of classrooms in Selolwe Junior School was done during my tenure. I fought for the expansion of Gerald Estates with 3,500 serviced plots and for the servicing of industrial plots in the new Central Business District (CBD). I did so because I firmly believe that commercial activities can contribute to economic development. I came up with the issue of the construction of community halls within some wards in my constituency like Moselewapula. The construction of some mini-halls is still ongoing in some wards. I have fought for the construction of public servants houses and building of offices for Social and Community Development (SCD) offices in Botsalano ward. These offices have helped a lot to address pressing issues in our communities,” said Moswaane.
Moswaane also mentioned that during his tenure, he completed an incubator at Monarch while the construction of two others in Botsalano and Monarch is ongoing.
One of Moswaane’s main worries is that the Gerald-Aerodrome road that was earmarked to ease traffic congestion in the constituency has not been implemented although it was funded in 2015.