Two years back, Daniel Kwelagobe was the darling of local politics.
In the run up to the BDP’s national congress in Kanye, Kwelagobe earned himself accolades from BDP supporters, political analysts, private media and Batswana in general.
Kwelagobe had made it clear that he was going to stick to the dictates of the BDP constitution, which calls for democratic elections of the party leadership every two years.
He was brave to defy Khama’s wish for a handpicked leadership. Many of us rallied behind Kwelagobe as his insistence on elections epitomized principle and democracy.
I remember how I attacked my homeboy, Jacob Nkate, for supporting Khama’s compromise leadership. At the time, it was clear Khama wanted to pick his team and he never made it a secret as to whom he wanted in his list. I still remember media reports on what Khama had said about Kwelagobe at the time.
He made it known that he was not ready to work with Kwelagobe. Kwelagobe and his supporters earned a lot of sympathy from the nation as Khama alienated them. Kwelagobe even resigned his cabinet post to ready himself for elections. He was for elections and nothing else.
Khama gave up on compromise and the elections went ahead. Kwelagobe and his team beat Khama’s preferred candidates hands down. They took all positions of leadership, save for the presidency, over which no one summoned enough guts to challenge Khama.
The BDP is going for its national congress over the weekend and Khama, yet again, insists on compromise and not elections. When Khama made this pronouncement, many of us waited with bated breath to hear what Kwelagobe would say this time around.
To our shock and disbelief, Khama announced in Molepolole that he had assigned Kwelagobe to draw up a compromise list that would be used instead of elections. I thought to myself, “This Khama guy is fond of twisting facts”.
I had expected Kwelagobe to distance himself from such an undemocratic stance. After all, just two years back he fooled us into believing he was a true democrat ready to uphold the constitution of his party. Two years back his campaign tool was the party’s constitution. He argued and convinced many people that it would be undemocratic not to hold elections at a congress. This time Kwelagobe looks set to embrace a compromise.
In fact, it is reported that he even delegated some of his fellow party MP’s to draw up the compromise list, which has him at the top, as party chairman. I’m still struggling to come to terms with Kwelagobe’s sudden puppetry towards Khama.
We knew Kwelagobe as the only man in the BDP who could face Khama and tell him to his face that he is derailing. Khama has always been scared of Kwelagobe and Kwelagobe proved to command a lot of support and authority in the BDP if we are to judge by the outcome of the Kanye elections.
Whatever Khama fed Kwelagobe to make him so docile I am still to find out. Nowadays Kwelagobe ke ngwana fela jaaka bana ba bangwe in the BDP. He takes orders from Khama even when he is uncomfortable with such orders.
And then came Kentse Rammidi.
This guy has been making a lot of noise and insisted on elections as opposed to a compromise.
Just like Kwelagobe, he resigned his cabinet post to pave way for his campaign for secretary generalship of the party. He was in the limelight for his principled stance towards the selection of the party’s leadership. He vowed never to accept compromise. He was determined to go for elections. We believed and praised him for appearing to be a principled politician.
It appears the guy was all fake.
He now appears in the compromise list and he must be smiling to have been endorsed by Khama. He is now quiet and appears to have gone back on his call for elections. I’m surprised that these guys work with Khama yet they always fail to pick his tricks.
The first question that comes to mind is, so Kwelagobe and Rammidi have no problem with compromise as long as their names are included?
In 2009, Kwelagobe was not part of Khama’s compromise list as he preferred Tebelelo Seretse. Was this the reason Kwelagobe was against compromise? I mean, why else would he now embrace compromise? Kwelagobe’s acceptance of compromise really compromises his integrity. Rammidi’s sudden change of heart could be used to rightly assert he never was against compromise but he was only fighting for his inclusion in the list. I look at Rammidi as he smiles at Khama’s endorsement and I feel sorry for him because clearly, he does not understand Khama.
Khama is a tactician.
He knows that by including Kwelagobe and Rammidi in his compromise list, he has silenced the two most influential people who could thwart his efforts towards a compromise. Having silenced the two, Khama knows too well no BDP member will object at the congress.
The only two men who could oppose Khama have now been silenced. Knowing Khama, he claims to accept Rammidi now but he will definitely teach him a lesson after the congress.
Rammidi has been making statements that could have embarrassed the party’s leadership and I have no doubt once the congress is over, Khama will make sure to punish him.
As he smiles at the prospects of sailing though to the secretary general’s office unchallenged, Rammidi should know that his stay in that office may be short-lived.
Should Rammidi accept to be part of this compromise list, he will have to conform and abide by Khama’s instructions whether he likes it or not. Failure to be Khama’s ‘boy’ will come with severe consequences on Rammidi. After all, Khama right now feels Rammidi owes him some allegiance for his inclusion in the list.
That said, I must state how disappointed I am at Kwelagobe and Rammidi. They have proved to be opportunists who have no qualms with undemocratic dispensation provided they stand to benefit. How sad that a president who always boasts of how a true democrat he is, happens to be the one trampling upon a democratic process of electing his party leadership.
On a different subject, I was shocked to read in the media, reports allegedly made by the Commander of the Army, General Masire.
We know very well that he occupies that seat at the prerogative of the ruling party President. We know that his position is a political appointment and we know that chances are he is a BDP member. We have no problem with that because we have had Khama and Merafhe leaving the army and immediately come out in the open as BDP members.
So I don’t understand why Masire is so impatient. Masire should know that he has to protect the interests of Batswana and not the president’s only. Therefore, I would urge Masire to contain his excitement and keep his political affiliation to himself.
