The General Secretary of the African National Congress (ANC) and chairman of the South African Communist Party (SACP), Gwede Mantashe, says Botswana is a reluctant player both regionally and in Africa.
The ANC strongman said this shortly after addressing delegates at the just ended congress of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) that was held in Mahalapye over the weekend.
“You can’t take away from Botswana that it has stability and it has always tried hard to send many of the young people to school,” he said, adding that when it comes to regional politics Botswana is reluctant to play a role.
“Botswana is reluctant, this reluctance is based on an artificial policy of not seeking to meddle,” he said.
Matashe said that the ruling BDP still has a chance to bring stability in Zimbabwe if, for instance, like the ANC, it engages ZANU PF directly.
“It could help if there is a consolidated effort from Malawi, Zambia and Botswana,” he said.
“If Zimbabwe remains unstable it hampers regional development,” He told The Telegraph.
Mantashe said that the all inclusive government in Zimbabwe is a regional solution that needs to be supported, adding that there is an urgent need to rebuild the Zimbabwean economy as well as its infrastructure.
He said that Botswana could, for instance, recruit and send some of its civil servants to assist the incoming new government of South Sudan.
He said despite ideological differences, the ANC has a relationship with the BDP as a ruling party and as ruling parties had a working relationship.
Last year, an ANC representative denounced the ruling BDP at congress hosted by the opposition Botswana National Front (BNF) and claimed that the ANC is a BNF ally.
However, Mantashe does not see anything amiss with his visit to a party that is not aligned to the left.
“The objective responsibility of the ANC is to mobilize all classes and cluster in society,” he said.
He said that if the BDP and ANC continue to work together there are bound to influence each other.
“Relations with parties in the continent are not clear cut, there is proximity when working together and working with the BDP does not compromise us because it is the ruling party,” said Mantashe.
When quizzed about the ongoing succession battle within the ANC that political analysts predict he (Mantashe) will be a causality, the ANC general Secretary claimed ignorance.
“There is nothing called succession battle, that is a term coined by journalists to dramatise the ANC elective congress…genuine cadres of the ANC do not lobby for position and it is a taboo to lobby,” he said as he refused to disclose whether he will be available for election at his party’s elective congress scheduled for next year.
The ANC leader also revealed that his party would send a team to benchmark on the De beers and Botswana government arrangement to assist on the Nationalization of mines in South Africa.
