A section of the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) has joined the campaign by the Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services (DIS) to orchestrate the factional infighting inside the Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) and to neutralise Ndaba Gaolathe, a DIS intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), report compiled this week for President Ian Khama has revealed.
The top-secret DIS document dated July 20, 2017, which has been passed to the Sunday Standard, presents intelligence very recently acquired by the spy agency and provides the most detailed account of how a section of the BCP is planning to take advantage of the BMD infighting to advance its political agenda.
A faction of the BMD led by advocate Sidney Pilane, comprising National Executive Committee members Nehemiah Modubule, Gilbert Mangole and Tlamelo Mmatli is fighting from the same corner with the DIS to neutralise Gaolathe and him and his vice president Wynter Mmolotsi topple from the party leadership.
The secret DIS report which is based on surveillance and reconnaissance information states that BCP Secretary General, Kentse Rammidi “mentioned that he is pushing the Modubule/Mangole faction behind the scenes to go to court and interdict the Gaolathe/Mmolotsi faction from using the BMD name, but the faction has indicated that it is still gathering more evidence to build a strong case”.
According to the report, Rammidi is hoping that Gaolathe will be forced into a situation where he has to form a new party. The new party would then have to renegotiate new terms for its UDC membership and would be caught up in a row with the Pilane, Modubule and Mangole’s group on who should inherit BMD constituencies. With Gaolathe and his group bargaining from a position of weakness, the BCP would then be in pole position to negotiate for more constituencies.
Rammidi confirmed the conversation with Rakgare, but explained that he was expressing concern that the BMD impasse could cripple the Umbrella for Democratic Change. “I was making the argument that the BMD situation has to be resolved sooner or later before it puts the UDC in a quagmire.”
Rammidi says it was in that spirit that he spoke to the Modubule/Mangole faction to approach the courts to resolve their differences with the Gaolathe camp. He also pointed out that he had argued that Ndaba and his group should not be pushed out of the UDC. To his credit, the DIS intelligence report recorded Rammidi trying to convince Rakgare that “you really don’t want to push them (Gaolathe’s group) far away. We can’t deny that they have a following.”
The document further reports that Rammidi told UDC president Duma Boko that “if the Gaolathe/Mmolotsi faction is not in, UDC should forget about regime change.
