BOCCIM discredited; probably for good!

A lot has been made of the comprehensive victory by Lokwalo Mosienyane over Alex Monchusi for the position of BOCCIM President.
Numbers don’t lie!
If numbers is all that people are looking for then Mr. Mosienyane has won the contest hands down.
But that is not our concern.
Rather we are consumed by what will become of BOCCIM once the celebrations and mourning at the respective corners have all dried up?
BOCCIM, we have to remind our readers was established with the tacit assistance, nudging, prodding and even goading by government as an employer’s federation with the pretext of talking for the private sector while the truth was actually to have in place an organization that would tamper and ultimately neutralize the then growing influence and militancy of organized worker organizations.
A shorthand of BOCCIM’s past president is by itself telling; Dan Moroka, Modiri Mbaakanyi, Richard Mannatlhoko, Kgeledi Kgoroba and most recently Alex Monchusi.
In varying ways they all are proud to have been related to the BDP in one shade or another.
We have no problem with that.
In fact we have no hoot with people belonging to a political party of their choice.
But our view is that the business community in Botswana deserves better and while there may have been a time when all business people could only be found inside the BDP tent that era has long gone and it is time the business community in this country agitated for an organization that can speak for the private sector unencumbered by the shackles of political affiliation that has so gravely undermined BOCCIM, reaching its peak in recent times.
Once again we hold no truck for Mr. Monchusi.
Our view is that he is in no way different from Mr. Mosienyane.
The only problem is that owing to his abrasive, brusque and swashbuckling management style he failed to read much less foretell the mood that he was up against the bigger forces that currently dominate, control and even terrorize the party of which he too is a member.
That was his downfall and we are not about to shed a tear for him.
Having said that we are not about to join a shrivel chorus of voices that has been reverberating around the country welcoming and even congratulating Mr. Mosienyane.
The dirty manner with which the pair played out their campaign goes a long way to highlight the men’s leadership deficiencies.
We have no faith in either man. We could not have cared less who emerged the winner.
Of issue here is BOCCIM the organization.
Our trust in BOCCIM has been irreparably damaged by events of the last few months.
BOCCIM presidency aside, a closer scrutiny of the undercurrents at play reveals an organization heavily besieged by massive political forces that control it.
And among the chief protagonists some of who were openly involved in the catfight are known BDP Central Committee members, with some cabinet ministers playing invisible but heavy hands from under the shadows.
This has contaminated the organization that should stand for business and not politics.
We are of the view that from the beginning to the end the contest between messers Mosienyane and Monchusi was a phony one.
Whoever was to emerge victorious, it was always going to be more of the same.
Even the very committee that was tasked with establishing what was wrong with BOCCIM and even suggesting reconciliation is in our view tainted.
It could not be trusted with resuscitating an organization that has not only lost its direction but has also become a quasi-political organ of the ruling establishment.
We have said it before, and we say it again that it is time the business community marshaled their efforts and resources towards forming an alternative to BOCCIM; this is not because we have anything against BOCCIM.
It is out of deeply held conviction that BOCCIM has failed and that the business community in Botswana deserve better.