Moswaane breaks BPP’s 35-year ‘drought’
Spira Tlhankane | Tuesday November 5, 2024 15:24
By press time, Moswaane was confirmed as the first BPP MP since 1989 to make it to Parliament whilst fellow party comrade Nono Kgafela was still leading as counting continued in Kgatleng East. Originally called Bechuanaland People’s Party before independence, BPP was the country’s first mass-based nationalist party which self-destructed in 1962 and led to the Botswana Democratic Party’s (BDP) landslide victory in 1966.
This is a party which was once considered a contender for winning the first elections before its split into Matante-Motsete-Mpho factions in 1962. Formed before any other party in 1960, the last time BPP won a parliamentary seat was in 1984 under Kenneth Nkhwa who secured the party’s single seat in the Fifth Parliament. Before that, the BPP had always had an MP since the First Parliament when it was led by the late Philip Matante. In the First Parliament, BPP had three MPs, namely Matante, Nkhwa, and Thari Motlhagodi of Mochudi.
The BPP managed to retain all three in the Second Parliament, won two in the Third Parliament, secured one in the Fourth Parliament and managed to retain that one (Nkhwa) in the Fifth Parliament. Nkhwa, a long-time MP for the then North East constituency was the last BPP MP on the National Assembly when his term ended in 1989. Since then the party had not tasted victory until Moswaane turned the tide. Moswaane joined the BPP after defecting from the BDP in 2020.
Moswaane’s party contested under the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) and has always been a minority in the coalition setup, which also includes founding member BNF and the Alliance for Progressives (AP) which only joined last year. Before the General Election, there were doubts that Moswaane, a deep-rooted grassroots politician could retain the seat under the party, which has consistently failed to win both parliamentary and council seats in the past two elections under the UDC. Moswaane, though new to the party in 2020, was seen as a potential heir to long-time president and UDC chair Molatsi Molapise but the latter ended those doubts when he was retained as president earlier this year during the party’s February meeting.
In the same meeting, Moswaane was chosen as Secretary for Political Education and Strategy. But even though the odds were stacked against Moswaane, the BPP believed he was the right man to rewrite history. Moswaane is no pushover as he once defected from the BDP, ran as an independent candidate, and beat his BDP opponent. It was also through the mayorship role in Francistown that Moswaane geared up for his role as an MP. Even though he spent most of his time as a backbencher in the BDP, he might as well hope for a much better role in the new administration led by UDC president Duma Boko. Moswaane is not a man who is afraid to speak his heart and the 12th Parliament’s light moment includes amongst others his exchange with Palelo Motaosane and when he was thrown out of the house by the security. Launched by the late Kgalemang Motsete (first BPP president) and Motsamai Mpho (secretary) in 1960, the BPP 64 years, later could very well revive itself under the UDC coalition.