Political differences during that electoral cycle (2019) had forced the Alliance for Progressives (AP) or purple movement as they are affectionately known to test their mettle as a single entity in the polls of 2019 with only Wynter Mmolotsi emerging as a perennial survivor. In the 2024 General Election cycle, six of AP MPs who contested the polls on the ruling UDC ticket triumphed. Gaolathe, Mmolotsi, Phenyo Butale, Helen Pushie Manyeneng, Galenawabo Leakau, and Shima Monageng are the troops that added colour to the ruling UDC when it needed them.
Boko, Botswana’s sixth State President announced Gaolathe as his Vice President-designate at the handing over ceremony at the Office of the President yesterday to loud cheers from a fully packed Cabinet boardroom. He is the only one who has been announced from his impending Cabinet so far. Since the advent of the breakaway party from the then-ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) in 2010, Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD), Gaolathe led another breakaway party from the BMD called the AP which was allocated a number of parliamentary seats to contest and won six of them in the 2024 General Election under the UDC banner. Remember, the last time Ndaba (AP president) won a parliamentary seat was in 2014, still under the UDC and upon his return in the 2024 General Election is almost akin to the biblical return of the political ‘prodigal son’. He is back as the MP for Gaborone Bonnington South, a seat he lost in 2019.
By this appointment, Boko is intentional to keep Gaolathe closer to him and cement the relationship with the man he trusts so much. It’s Gaolathe’s loyalty to his leader and friend, Boko more than anything else that has seemingly earned him the stripes to rise to the second highest office in the land. Gaolathe is a shrewd businessman and finance guru and he will add value to the Boko-led government. The VP-designate, with his quiet demeanour, has thorough knowledge of financial and economic issues, which will help him, provide a special advisory role to the new government whilst at the same time dealing with issues of governance.
When announcing the role to be played by Gaolathe the visibly elated President Boko said: “He has a way of calming me and everyone else around him. He has the calm effect. I can sometimes make people uncomfortable but he has that thing and so let me take this time to announce Gaolathe as my Vice President-designate.” True to his character, his smile was buried and concealed as if no good news was announced about him; Gaolathe bears similar traits in character like his departed father, Baledzi Gaolathe (may his soul rest in peace) who has served the country as Finance minister and governor of Bank of Botswana. His father served the civil service with distinction and would later join politics where he equally served with aplomb as a minister and legislator.
