The third longest serving Member of Parliament arrived into parliament by a sheer stroke of luck. He was a shoo-in who had neither the ambition nor hope of reaching parliament. Until 1987 Johnny Swartz was content with his job as Chairman of Ghanzi District Council.
The job allowed him all the time to engage in his passion as a farmer. But when tragedy struck and incumbent area Member of Parliament died, the ruling Botswana Democratic Party found itself flapping frantically for a replacement. Not surprisingly, Swartz was not mentioned among the candidates. Yet almost thirty years later, the largely reticent man from Ghanzi finds himself a senior cabinet minister of state and the third in line after only President Ian Khama and Vice President PHK Kedikilwe.
In the entire Parliament, only Daniel Kwelagobe whose parliamentary career goes as far back as 1969 and Kedikilwe who first arrived into parliament in 1984 have been around longer. When Henry Jankie died in 1987, President Ketumile Masire and his Botswana Democratic Party were caught off guard. There was no clear and ready replacement waiting on the wings to immediately fill the shoes of the long serving Member of Parliament. In great haste Dr. Masire ordered that Soblem Mayane should resign his position as District Commissioner and become a BDP candidate in the by-election. Dr. Masire had no reason to suspect that his ducks were to soon fall out of a row.
Given his education, experience and senior position in the civil service, Mayane was a seamless choice, or so the President thought – good enough to be a cabinet material in case there was need to rearrange the furniture. But Masire’s choice as candidate in the Ghanzi by-election turned out to be a political disaster that simultaneously mutated into an immensely low blow for both president and the BDP. Mayane, both the party and president were soon to discover in shame had not registered as a voter in the 1984 General elections thus by law disqualifying himself to either vote or stand as a candidate in any subsequent by-election.
Unaware of this starling fact, Mayane had nonetheless gone ahead and resigned his civil service job as District Commissioner and started to campaign under the BDP ticket. Upon discovery of Mayane’s circumstances, both President Masire and the BDP were forced into an embarrassing retreat that sent by-election campaign into chaos. Surrounded by his inner circle of advisors the President found himself back at the drawing boards in a renewed search for a parliamentary candidate to replace Henry Jankie. There was some damage control to do.
BDP Secretary General, Daniel Kwelagobe, together with party elder and cabinet colleague, Kebatlamang Morake were dispatched to Ghanzi to go and break news to Johnnie Swartz that with the party under siege he was now the identified stop gap needed to bring the situation back under control. Ever a loyal party man, Swartz answered the call. And the rest, as they say is history. Kwelagobe laughs off the incident as old news. “We did not know that Mayane had not registered for elections. For a man of his education I don’t know what kind of District Commissioner he was,” says Kwelagobe in his typical exuberance. “But let bygones be bygones. We took it like it was one of those things.
Why do you want to bring that thing back again?” he adds jokingly when asked to relive the trip that he subsequently made with Morake to break the news to Swartz. Is history about to repeat itself again? If political gossip of yet another stop-gap Vice President is anything to go by then, Johnny Swartz is currently on track to becoming a third Vice President to serve under President Ian Khama. Of the entire cabinet, Swartz is the minister President Khama most respects, coming second only to Vice President PHK Kedikilwe.
While the relationship between the Swartz and Khama has warmed up significantly, insiders say it was not always like this. In fact the relationship was predicated on a bumpy footing, characterized by what those involved at the time saw as unhealthy bouts of antipathy, very much like was the situation between Khama and Kedikilwe at around the same time. Together with former Minister Bahiti Temane and to a lesser extent, the late Chapson Butale, Swartz was one of the few BDP senior ministers who were courageous enough to take then Vice President Ian Khama head on at BDP caucuses, including when the Vice President used to throw tantrums threatening to resign from politics.
Almost universally, colleagues in cabinet say Swartz is a safe pair of hands who enjoys immense respect from the President that is only exceeded by that given to Vice President Kedikilwe. “In cabinet he is one of a small circle to whose counsel the President listens. When you remember the early relationship between Khama and Kedikilwe, there is actually a precedent to it,” says another colleague. The trouble, they all add is that as always Swartz does not exhibit the kind of ambition that is often exuded by other members of the political tribe.
Instead he remains old fashioned and modest, but fiercely self-content too. “He is an independent thinker. And very competent. But is he interested in the position of Vice President? I do not think so.” At a time when other ministers are busy briefing against others, Swartz continues to shun the media, turning down all publicity seeking antics the same way that he always did when he was a Ghanzi Council Chairman in 1984.
“I am surprised that when VP names are mentioned his is never mentioned. He is a party man through and through. Unlike today’s ambitious people who are parachuted in at cabinet level he started right at the bottom as activist and concillor,” said a BDP Member of Parliament.
