Trouble for Tshabang as BCP descends on Nkange

Spira Tlhankane | Friday June 7, 2024 11:05

Tshabang is one of the four legislators who defied the BCP and chose the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) ahead of his own party when the BCP quit the coalition in 2022. Tshabang was expelled from the party alongside three other BCP MPs for taking part in a caucus that removed the BCP president Dumelang Saleshando from Leader of Opposition (LoO) position. As the BCP continues to launch candidates ahead of the General Election in October, the party will now unveil its Nkange MP candidate, Motlhaleemang Moalosi also known as ‘Faka Pressure’ at the Tutume Bus Rank. The BCP is fresh from launching Chobe MP Candidate, Oscar Mapulanga, in Kasane this past weekend. Nkange is very critical for the BCP because it is the very same constituency the BCP won in 2019 under the UDC banner. The constituency is no longer under the BCP because the former member and incumbent MP Tshabang is with the UDC. The BCP has prepared life past Tshabang and aims to remove him by fielding Moalosi. When Tshabang chose the UDC over the BCP, the latter now looks towards Moalosi to reclaim the constituency.

Affectionately nick-named ‘Faka Pressure’, Moalosi’s decision to contest Nkange came after his home village ward of Marapong/Semitwe was relocated from the Shashe West constituency to Nkange following the delimitation exercise. Moalosi is not new to the political domain. In 2014 he contested the Shashe West parliamentary elections and lost to incumbent Fidelis Molao. In 2019 he did not contest because the UDC had fielded Alfred Mashungwa who also lost to Molao. Moalosi is now prepared to battle in a different terrain which is different from Shashe West. The BCP has been building a base in Nkange since the 1999 General Election when the party was just a year old. In 1999, former BCP chairman Batisani Maswibilili came second with 1, 523 votes losing to Botswana Democratic Party (BDP)’s Ambrose Masalila who won the constituency with 3, 925 votes. Over the years, the BCP began working hard to change its fortunes and started posing a tangible threat against the BDP. There was quite an improvement for the BCP in the 2004 General Election when the rematch of Maswibilili and Masalila saw the latter beating the former with 4, 246 votes against 3, 176. This was at a time when the Botswana Alliance Movement (BAM) was also a major force in the constituency but when the BCP and BAM formed an alliance the duo was a formidable force to reckon with.

Finally, people thought a combined vote of BAM and BCP exceeded that of the BDP and therefore thought the alliance stood a very good chance to win the constituency. In 2009 Nkange was also a tight race when former Police Commissioner Edwin Batshu, who ousted Masalila in the BDP’s Bulela Ditswe primaries, later managed to win against the alliance. For the third election in a row, Maswibilili still could not beat the BDP opponents but the BCP’s numbers were increasing each time. Initially before the 2009 General Election, Maswibilili had hinted that he would not stand as a parliamentary candidate for BCP in Nkange but persuasion from his comrades put him back on the race. By the time the 2014 General Election approached, the BCP had merged with the BAM and Maswibilili had given up on Nkange altogether. In came Tshabang who was hoping to carry on where Maswibilili had left off. For a first timer, Tshabang did quite well against the BDP’s Batshu by garnering 5, 874 votes against the latter’s 6, 461, a margin of just 587 votes. It was very clear that the BCP was closing in. Batshu’s decision not to contest the BDP 2018 primaries was a game changer for the BCP and the ruling party fights in the area also gave the BCP ammunition at a time when the lime movement had just joined the UDC.

A councillor in Tutume Sub district, Ishmael Mokgethi, was sent to continue the BDP dominance in the area but Tshabang could not have any of that. Tshabang finally won the constituency for the BCP in 2019 after the latter’s two decades of trying. He beat Mokgethi with a margin of 960 votes. From just 1, 523 votes in 1999 to 7, 766 in 2019, the BCP’s footprint in the area had grown significantly over the 20-year period and Nkange is now the party’s stronghold. At the moment, Tshabang is merely an obstacle for the BCP, which has made it its mission to punish him. The BNF is non-existent in the area and Tshabang will depend solely on incumbency and the perhaps the UDC brand but his chances are very slim. With less than five months before the October polls, the UDC is yet to launch Tshabang and the party started building from scratch when the latter was expelled from the BCP. At the BDP, which poses a major threat for the BCP, Mokgethi is not contesting for the party’s upcoming primaries and four relatively unknown names will be battling for the party ticket. As the BCP invades Tutume this weekend for Moalosi’s launch, the party’s hopes will be on its active structures and the fact that their numbers have been increasing every election year.