On November 24th 2008 the Sunday Standard carried an article purportedly written by Arafat Khan titled: ‘In Defense of the BNF’. Obviously, Arafat Khan whose language is known to me as uncouth or never sanitized did not author the article. The article has all the hallmarks of the first official Central Committee response to some of the many issues we have raised with them since the ill-fated Jwaneng Conference in July. Either through arrogance or cowardice, the Central Committee has decided to make, of all the people, the political toddler Arafat Khan their sacrificial lamb and attack dog. We will deal with the issues regardless of who the messenger is. On the whole, the article trivializes the serious issues we have raised and skirts around them instead of genuinely engaging with them. For that reason, it suffices to provide a generalized response.
From the outset we wish to point out that the title of the article ‘In Defense of the BNF’ is misleading for two main reasons.
There is no way in which those associated with the current Central Committee, which is presiding over a blatant, unprecedented and wanton disintegration and weakening of the BNF, can convince anybody that they are in fact ‘defending the BNF’. The title pre-supposes that the current leadership is defending the BNF against the BNF Temporary Platform bent on ‘creating confusion among the BNF membership’.
The title of the article also creates the false impression that the current Central Committee is leading the whole organization while in actual fact it is leading a faction. Moupo has failed to rise above factionalism and serve as a unifying figure. Indeed, his political survival depends of the factionalism he authored in 2006 and is presiding over.
Anyone associated with BNF leadership who genuinely wants to defend the BNF does not need to write lengthy newspaper articles ‘in defense of the BNF’. The best way the leadership can defend the BNF is to adhere strictly to the party constitution and organizational norms and principles and, of course, manage the party’s shoestring budget prudently. More specifically, the BNF is fast running out of time and must act with a sense of urgency with the regard to the following:
Ensure the immediate resignation of the BNF leader in line with article 9 of the constitution on the right to immediate recall. His resignation is long over due and his continued stay in office has already caused untold damage to the image of the organization. This is an absolutely non-negotiable pre-condition for the revival of the fortunes of the once mighty BNF.
Following Moupo’s resignation the vice President must act as BNF leader for three months as per the constitution pending the convocation of a normal congress where the rank and file membership will, among other things, elect a new leadership.
The best New Year present Otsweletse Moupo can give to BNF members, sympathizers and well-wishers is to announce his immediate resignation at the forthcoming so-called special congress or now. If he continues to cling to office he must be sacked. His tenuous grip on power is like an albatross around the neck of the embattled BNF. Veteran Comrade OK Meyatso was right to describe him as ‘suicide bomber’ who has already inflicted untold damage on the BNF. His departure would pave the way for the convocation of a normal congress in March next year where a new leadership would be chosen to rebuild the party within the next 7 months. Given the resilience of the BNF, I am confident that this would usher in a new era of hope.
Only then can the BNF have a realistic chance of defending some of its electoral gains of yesteryears and possibly make some inroads into enemy territory. The BDP regime has never been so vulnerable to an organized BNF.
The 2007 Molepolole Special Congress only served to bestow a false veneer of legitimacy on that faction. Since they assumed office, the Central Committee has consistently pursued factionalist strategies and tactics, which caused enormous damage to the party. The BNF Central Committee, which is supposed to be the political vanguard of the movement, has become its worst enemy.
Contrary to the Central Committee view that the expulsion of Modubule and Tafa was ‘meant to restore order and discipline’ what everybody is witnessing is the fact that the disintegration of the party is gathering pace. There is a veritable mass exodus of BNF members on a daily basis. Only recently the following comrades quit the organization: John Disele in Moshopa, Keetla Masogo in Mogoditshane, Councilor Tladi in Kgatleng, James Mathokgwane in Gaborone, Comrade Benson in Okavanga, Comrade Bojosi in Maun, to name but a few. In Lobatse scores of BNF activists were welcomed into the BDP recently. Cry the beloved BNF! The BNF Temporary Platform was formed precisely to defend the BNF against Moupo’s deliberate strategy of destabilizing the party on behalf of the BDP, which bailed him out of his huge personal debts. He is a sell-out.
I wish to quote liberally from a document jointly authored by Moupo the BNF activist and another comrade by the name of P Laconte to again illustrate the amazing two faces of the BNF leader. It is clear that Moupo was the main contributor to the document. The document is entitled ‘Botswana National Front: Problems and Prospects. An Internal Discussion Document’. Although it bears no date it is clear that it was written after the 1998 BCP split and after the 2009 general elections.
‘It is clear that the terrible in fighting which occurred, especially around the primary elections also contributed in no small measure to our defeat. Here the blame lies squarely with the leadership, which not only handled the primary elections in the most inept manner, but also tended to fuel the conflicts around the primaries by openly siding with certain candidates against others. Even after promulgating primary election rules and regulation, the central committee had scant respect for these rules. For instance, where the Appeals Board made decisions, which certain members of the Central Committee did not want with respect to Gaborone West and Gaborone North, the Central Committee, ignored its decisions. And yet the Appeals Board was a sub-committee of the central committee, which had the sole prerogative of handling electoral appeals in terms of the primary elections rules and regulations. Worse still, even the primary elections results were in some cases not respected’.
Barely 9 years later the BNF finds itself in the middle of ‘terrible in-fighting’ precisely because Moupo’s leadership has committed the very sins the BNF leader condemned in 1999!
Almost a year after primary elections were held the Central Committee continues to organize re-runs of primary lections where his loyalists lost earlier in the year. In Kanye, their man lost again to MP Calvin Batsile. In Gantsi, a re-run has been ordered because Moupo’s loyalist, Kgosikoma, who is also a member of the Central Committee, was beaten fair and square by Comrade Kuela. Still in Gantsi, Comrade Thite beat Moupo’s man and he too is still waiting for a re-run.
In Gaborone North when nominations for parliamentary candidates closed, there was only one candidate, Gabriel Kajabanga, but since he has ceased to be a Moupo loyalist the ‘inept’ Central Committee imposed the name of Lemogang Ntime, a Moupo loyalist through the back door thus deliberately triggering the on-going political and legal crisis in that constituency.
The Central Committee is losing the legal battle. In the Thamaga by-elections, Comrade Selala who was unfairly suspended was forced to contest the elections as an independent candidate of the BNF Temporary Platform while Moupo’s central Committee dismally failed to field a candidate. BNF members in Thamaga made it clear that their candidate was Comrade Selala. Instead of trying to redeem its image by rallying behind the BNF candidate Comrade Selala, Moupo’s central committee unashamedly actively de-campaigned Selala and campaigned for the BDP.
When we were launching Comrade Selala, Moupo and his central committee were in Thamaga telling people that the BDP was ‘unopposed’ and that BNF members must not vote for Selala. The result is that the ward, which we should have won, was lost to the BDP. And yet the author of the article still maintains that ‘It is indeed wrong and a false accusation that the central committee seeks to reverse the outcome of primary elections’. In which planet is he living?
The idea that when I challenge Moupo’s disastrous leadership and his ‘inept’ central Committee I am ‘over ambitious’ is patently preposterous and does not wash. Otherwise why did I spend so much time and energy even as a civil servant campaigning for him while he was still a BNF activist?
The author of the article accuses the 2005 Central Committee of attempting to ‘coup’ Moupo when in actual fact all they did was to try and invoke article 9 of the constitution to recall the BNF leader because he had fallen victim to what he himself accurately described as ‘the corrupting influence of power and money’ by running up a massive personal debt which rendered him purchasable by the enemy. What a strange argument!
Moupo has mastered all the negative lessons from Dr Koma during the swansong of his leadership of the BNF. It must be recalled that when Dr Koma started derailing the movement from its course, he also accused Moupo of trying to coup him. Ironically, again, Moupo provides the best response to the fresh allegations of a coup plot by his cronies now leveled against us. This is how Moupo responded to Dr Koma’s allegations of a coup plot in 2000.
‘The real purpose of allegations of a coup plot is to divert people from the problems that face the party, especially the lackluster performance of the present central committee. Secondly, it is to prevent the mass of the rank and file BNF members from discussing Koma’s retirement. BNF is a democratic mass organization and retirement of a leader has to be openly and democratically discussed so the party can be better prepared for it’ (sic).
The only difference is that since Moupo lost his bearings, the post of BNF President has, to all intents and purposes, fallen vacant hence the debate on his replacement. The strong 2005 Central Committee was mischievously dismantled by the BNF leader, imbued with the mentality of a typical African dictator who reckons that his grip on power is assured by surrounding himself with political nonentities and lightweights. Can you for a moment imagine a BNF Central Committee made up of a traitor who has lost his bearings; a BDP card carrying member; tribal bigots including a member of Pitso Ya Batswana; a semi-illiterate comrade; a University of Botswana drop out and a marijuana addict! To describe the performance of this bunch of clowns as ‘lackluster’ would be a serious understatement. Like a bunch of headless chickens, this Central Committee has been lurching from one self-inflicted crisis to another. They resemble a reckless demolition squad presiding over an unprecedented enfeeblement of the party.
I wish to conclude by pointing out that the problems of the BNF are political and require a political solution, not the intervention of divine powers of traditional doctors like Dr Black or dubious prophets like Nigerian Prophet Joshua and not even some bourgeois consultant who hardly understands the politics of our movement.
*Dr Tafa is Spokesperson of the “BNF Temporary Platform”
