If there is any one thing that the outcome of the October 24 election guarantees, it is that the Minister of Environment, Tourism and Wildlife, Tshekedi Khama, won’t be doing that physical comedy routine of a canopyless umbrella that he put on at a Botswana Democratic Party rally anytime soon. Granted, the umbrella’s canopy doesn’t cover all of it but there is enough yardage to cause the ruling party look at it with new eyes and, for Tshekedi, to realise that the joke actually was actually on him. The election season typically got off to a tumultuous start with contentious primary elections in the BDP.
For this party, the primary elections are more important than the general election because if you win in a safe constituency – say Serowe, you can go to a bank and ask for a loan using the election results the way you would a letter of appointment. Unlike in any other primary election before, cabinet ministers were routed and the most sensational such downfall was that of then Minister of Justice, Defence and Security, Ramadeluka Seretse, in a constituency ÔÇô Serowe North ÔÇô where one has only to be royal to gain hassle-free access to parliament. Seretse is the President Ian Khama’s cousin. In Tonota, the incumbent MP and deputy speaker of the National Assembly, Pono Moatlhodi, controversially lost to Thapelo Olopeng and later defected to the opposition Botswana National Front. For the first time in history and for obviously non-exhilarating reasons, the constituency and the second most powerful position in the legislature were in the hands of an opposition figure.
When the general election campaign started, what was definitely its most atypical aspect was the war talk as who was peddling it. For the first time ever, the army was factored into the matrix of electoral outcome. Going back decades, the mud-slinging of the ruling party and the opposition has been limited to mutual accusations of incompetence. President Khama ramped up the politicking by several notches when he told BDP rallies that if the opposition wins, there would be bloodshed ÔÇô “tshololo ya madi” as he put it in Setswana. Khama never substantiated his bloodshed claim but it is interesting to contemplate which side would have been inclined towards such action in the event the BDP lost.
Experience from anywhere else around the world is that losers who control the army are always the ones that start civil wars. Appearing on South African television, UDC leader, Duma Boko, said something that the local media somehow failed to report on. He said that his party had no fear that Khama would cling on to power if he lost because the army would see to his exit. “The ruling party has also lost the support of the army – the disciplined forces. So, we believe that if they tried to play hardball, they may be nudged politely by the security forces, the armed forces, to get out. So it would be in their best interest to basically just hand it over if they lose.
So I don’t think they will be that stupid; I think they will basically accept that the time is up for them. And again, I don’t think that the people of Botswana – if the BDP loses an election, will tolerate them anymore. They are on the verge of losing whatever little confidence people may have in them. It may become dangerous for them so I think it would be advisable for them to just hand over power if they lose,” Boko told Business Day Africa editor Nick Kotch.
For the first time ever, a significant segment of Botswana’s opposition (in the BNF, Botswana Movement for Democracy and the Botswana People’s Party) were able to hammer out an agreement to fight the election as a loose confederation known as the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC). Tshekedi’s umbrella practical joke was about both the name and symbol of UDC. It is likely the participation of the one party that stayed out of ÔÇô Botswana Congress Party, would have resulted in a humiliating loss for the BDP which has ruled the country since 1965. Campaign money has traditionally been associated with the BDP which, as the party in power, attracts the generosity of wealthy benefactors that are always more than eager to support it so that it can maintain a political climate that allows them to prosper. In 2014, the opposition surprised everyone with its big spending. When UDC president, Duma Boko was launched as parliamentary candidate for Bonnington North, his party claimed two football pitches for that Saturday and constructed a huge makeshift mall where you could find half the things that people go to malls for. By one account, the launch cost P500 000. That was nothing.
Soon Boko and BCP leader, Dumelang Saleshando, were being flown around in helicopters as both campaigned for their parties around the country. Naturally, this prompts the questions: where is the money from and what do those providing it want in return? The more things change, the more they stay the same. When electoral democracy started, only white men with property could vote and were thus the one who determined electoral outcome. As a character in a New York Times bestseller observes centuries later, white people are still the ones who determine electoral outcome. In 2013, an American tycoon was said to be in the process of donating P45 million to the BDP’s war chest. UDC is also said to have found a rich vein of gold somewhere in the western world. The point: rich white men are still the ones who decide electoral outcome.
In the most fiercely fought election ever, the BDP unveiled its secret weapon in the person of a specially elected councillor called Alec Seametso. A highly accomplished orator, Seametso ensures that whatever is on his mind reaches his lips with virtually no delay. Even the most illuminating parts of Revelations in all versions of the Bible are not at all revealing about a raw-boned young man from Kanye whose value system is completely at odds with his society’s becoming a national campaign manager of the ruling party and according to media reports, attending cabinet meetings but that is what happened in 2014.
In one of his campaign assignments, Seametso flew with President Khama to Gantsi in an army transport plane. In an age of social media and selfies, pictures soon turned up on Facebook, courtesy of a member of the BDP’s publicity committee who was also aboard the plane. The writer’s knowledge of the media mischief is that even if a tied-and-suited Seametso were to renegotiate the Southern African Customs Union revenue-sharing formula in as heroic a manner as to secure Botswana an additional 60 percent to what it currently gets from the Union, pictorially that wouldn’t be the story.
Instead, the picture that would most likely be used to illustrate this business story would be of Seametso aboard the BDF plane, wearing a red BDP shirt and looking, as a UDC MP noted uncharitably, as if he is suffering severe post-meal nausea. Some have suggested that there should be minimum academic qualifications for electoral politicians in order that they would at least know that Shakespeare is not a misspelt name of a Middle Ages English warrior, that “honourable” is not pronounced as “on rubble” and that unlike “georgette”, “budget” is not a type of fabric.
In 2014, Gabz FM hosted debates for parliamentary candidates, visiting all 57 constituencies. This was the first time a private media had done this. In the absence of an academic qualifications standard, these debates seem a suitable stop-gap measure to gauge candidates’ IQ and problem-solving aptitude. The most tragic event out of the 2014 election was the death of Gomolemo Motswaledi at the age of 44 in a road accident on his way back from South Africa. Owing probably to his upbringing in a traditional setting, Motswaledi was a salt of the earth man who had a genuine connection with everyday people who held him in high regard.
A million questions about how he died remain unanswered but the attitude of some UDC leaders is both confusing and unhelpful. While they spurn calls for the release of his postmortem report on grounds that there are still information gaps to fill, they also continue to make definitive accusatory statements that Motswaledi was murdered by operatives they won’t name. When results of the 2014 general election finally came out on October 25, the battle turned out to have been between the BDP, the world’s longest-ruling democratically-elected party, and UDC. Credit for the BDP having achieved such record goes to a netizen called Rob who uses such description on a website called “Fruits and Votes.”
