Politics has been no fun for Bernard Bolele.
In the last fifteen months he has stood for elections no less than four times, against members of his Botswana Democratic Party and against the opposition.
The Member of Parliament for Mahalapye West came into Parliament less than two years ago after the retirement of General Mompati Merafhe who was also the Vice President of the Republic.
For a man who draws just over twenty thousand pula as a member of parliament, the flurry of campaigns that have come his way have been financially draining.
There is unanimity that in the less than two years that he has been in parliament, Bolele has spent much more money than he would have received as part of his perks as a legislator.
Bolele has turned down requests for an interview.
But after the Botswana Democratic Party surprisingly announced this week that he will have to go for a re-run his associates say he feels strongly that he is paying a price for daring to challenge Merafhe in the party primary elections in 2009.
They say Merafhe has never forgiven Bolele for what the senior politician always interpreted as an unpardonable gag of disloyalty for daring to stand against such a decorated party high priest, experienced public servant, revered statesman and acclaimed international diplomat.
“Merafhe is ruling Mahalapye from the grave. Bolele is the only party member who in less than two years has been subjected to back to back electoral campaigns more than two times,” said one of Bolele’s supporters.
To argue their case, Bolele’s sympathizers say there has been an explicit resolution taken through one of the congresses, consequently endorsed and even implemented by the Central Committee not to hold primaries form members that would have gotten into parliament through a by-election that happened within a threshold of a year to a General Election. That rule has not applied to Bolele.
Even then, it only tells half the story.
Although Bolele is being subjected to a rerun, there has not been any complaint against his victory in the just ended primaries.
In fact there is agreement across the divide that his opponent, Joseph Molefhe had gladly conceded defeat even going on to congratulate the winner, itself a rare feature in the just ended BDP primaries.
But it was on account of a few protests at council level that Bolele now finds himself fighting a political battle of his life.
No electoral drama best illustrate the unpredictability and inconsistencies of the BDP primaries than what is currently playing out in Mahalapye.
Not only has there been no protest against Bolele, even at council level where there were protests, only the complainants were given an opportunity to say their side of the story before a decision was taken that included a rerun for parliamentary candidates.
The Mahalapye West saga is the one thing that has gotten everybody inside the BDP talking about.
To make the situation all the more untenable, no letters been served on affected winners to notify or at the bare minimum call them for hearings that as it were happened, not in Mahalapye but Gaborone.
The region too was in the dark about the appeals because no letters had been formally submitted as required by the rules and guidelines governing BDP primary elections.
This is not to mention the fact that in a bizarre turn of events, some people who sat at Electoral Board level also shifted high up to listen to the appeals.
“The whole thing is like a comedy. Bolele has been heartlessly excluded from a generous undertaking which was meant to allow the party to heel because primaries invariably create rift but also to allow the incumbent time to breath given the well known high costs of mounting campaigns,” said a member of Bolele’s campaign team.
But what exactly is Merafhe’s role in the intriguing jigsaw?
There is consensus that even in retirement, the former Vice President still looks at Mahalapye not just as his backyard but also his fiefdom.
The narrative is that if he had his way he could have been able to have his preferred heir succeed him.
That chosen heir, it turns out is none other than Molefhe, a former soldier from Merafhe’s days as commander of the Botswana Defence Force.
Molefhe, it also turns out is an advisor to the Merafhe Foundation, an obscure charitable organization that the former Vice President created upon retirement to champion courses closer to his heart.
