A little over two months ago, a case was proposed on this space that it was time for Vice President Mompati Merafhe to call it a day.
The case, not the first by the way, was made not on account of Merafhe’s health.
For the record, I will never call on anybody to be sacked on account of their health ÔÇô not even those people I profoundly disagree with.
Doing so is simply unconscionable. It is, in my opinion, a matter to be decided by the people involved after getting advice from their doctors.
I wanted Merafhe sacked because I felt let down by his behavior in Mahalapye where he had told a BDP meeting that there were some among his party faithful in Mahalapye who had wanted him dead.
To me, the Vice President had once again crossed the line on the sand.
His statement was, to me, unpardonable as it was tactless, especially coming from a man of his political track record.
I have always appreciated his capacity to be divisive. But this time around I felt his conduct bordered on a deliberate and very mocking disrespect for the same nation that was wholly united in praying for his speedy recovery as well as standing by his immediate family at a very difficult and emotional time when he was hospitalized in South Africa.
At around the same time that I called for Merafhe to leave, others elsewhere were calling on Daniel Kwelagobe to also leave, just falling short of calling him a Judas who lacked political principles.
How could he now be the one called on to preside over a BDP elections compromise when only two years ago he had fought a battle of his political life by insisting on holding the same elections?
Show me Kwelagobe and I will show you a politician who cannot be trusted, quipped his detractors.
What many people do not seem to grasp is that for Daniel Kwelagobe retiring from active politics while leaving Mompati Merafhe in the trenches would be akin to abandoning in the enemy hands the course for which he has dedicated all his life ÔÇô the BDP.
From talking to those closest to him, Kwelagobe does no care in whose hands he leaves the BDP as long as that person is not Mompati Merafhe.
In no circumstances is Kwelagobe prepared to surrender the BDP to a man who has spent the last quarter of a century actively trying to erode that which Kwelagobe has stood for over the last half century.
The grudging fear that Merafhe could one day be able to run and control the BDP gives Kwelagobe sleepless nights.
Not only has that fear evolved into a steel determination to stop it at all costs, it is also a key factor that has forced Kwelagobe to let scores of his prot├®g├®s out of his loop as they wandered off to found the BMD.
On the other side of the camp sits Mompati Merafhe.
Here is a man who knows so well how different things would be for him today were it not because of Kwelagobe.
To Merafhe, Kwelagobe is the only person who has stood between him and his ultimate preferment, which is absolute control of the BDP and, of course, presidency.
An impression is being created around political circles that Kwelagobe is an unprincipled politician who cares only about himself and, to a lesser extent, about GUS Matlhabaphiri, and that to him nobody else matters.
There may be some truth in the gossip, but I refuse to buy into it.
To me Kwelagobe remains a pragmatic politician who is prepared to sacrifice some of his beloved prot├®g├®s if only to retain control of that political institution for which he has lived all his life, the BDP.
Don’t be deceived by recent stage-managed apologies where the Vice President was literally dragged and forced to publicly grovel and apologise to Kwelagobe for all the past misdeeds.
Kwelagobe sees himself as the only person who can stop Merafhe’s absolute takeover of the BDP.
And in a very real way, Kwelagobe is right.
Since he joined active politics in 1989, Merafhe has spent all his time trying to wrestle control of the BDP from Kwelagobe ÔÇô without success. He has at least on one occasion tried to become the party National Chairman, but was unable to penetrate the Mmusi/Kwelagobe nexus at the time. This is not to mention the fact that Merafhe has sired many political offshoots that were decidedly meant to bring Kwelagobe’s hegemony to an end.
But still how does one bring the feud to an end?
The only way is for President Ian Khama to arrange a day where both Kwelagobe and Merafhe would sit at a table, where each of them would publicly announce to the nation that they are quitting politics, in whatever form.
If that does not happen, then we have not seen the worst of the Merafhe-Kwelagobe relationship.
In a similar way for the BDP the worst days are still ahead.
Unless, of course, if God intervenes!
