Once a powerhouse to be reckoned with inside the BDP ranks, poor Jakes is now resigned to political archives of oblivion. Such is life and that is why life is often referred to as a gamble – you lose some, you win some.
But it is the manner in which your loss comes rather than the loss itself that determines the pain you endure. In the case of Jacob Nkate, should I be in his shoes, I certainly would feel utmost pain and robbed in broad daylight. In Setswana there is a proverb that goes “ka tlhagolela leokane ya re le gola la ntlhaba.” (I made you king now you have neglected me or you are now disregarding me).
To be fair to Jakes, he rose through the ranks through an absolutely democratic process and I take my hat off for him for that achievement! However, whilst being somewhere there at the top, he forgot the ladder through which he had ascended and probably through greed , wanted to forever remain there, thwarting ascendency of others using the same process he used. He then endorsed an undemocratic process to choose those who should lead the party, a conspiracy which now has come to haunt him and the BDP dreadfully. That is how the cookie crumbles anyway.
First the process in itself denied Jakes the opportunity to contest for any position in the 2009 Kanye Congress since it deterred those holding cabinet positions from contesting positions in the party structures. This was not only detrimental to Jakes’ future in politics but was also detrimental to the A-team faction since opinion polls did indicate that had the A-team probably fielded their heavy weights in Jakes and General Merafhe the Barata party would not have emerged with a clean slate as was the result. In other words, Khama’s strategy to try and sideline Barataparty was a double edged sword and it backfired terribly. Talk of Khama being a strategist; I beg to differ with that school of thought. Just imagine if Botswana had gone to war during his time as head of the army and this man made such a miscalculation, wouldn’t we be talking of a heroes acres today?
The second disaster for Jakes was his loss in the general elections. We had all anticipated that considering his stature within the party Jakes would automatically get the nod for specially-elected MP but that was not to be.
Khama’s strength in the BDP before the departure of Barataparty was the A-team, and Jakes being number two in the A team leadership, especially with the A-team number one, Gen. Merafhe having retained his constituency, was all but destined for specially elected MP.
I don’t foresee Gomolemo Motswaledi dumping Kabo Morwaeng or Wynter Mmolutsi, or Dumelang Saleshando dumping Taolo Lucas when opposition takes power. Not Khama, he does not have that sense of brotherhood or allegiance. Remember in all honesty the man is different from all of us and I bet one thing that he curses now is his upbringing, which has denied him proper interaction with Batswana children which would have afforded him an opportunity to be in all aspects of the word, a Motswana.
That has denied him understanding of how a Motswana thinks, fluency in the vernacular and what norms of expectation are embedded in a Motswana. Summarily the man has missed the boat to Setswana culture. That has been his greatest undoing, being brought up by a white woman, no wonder our President is so at sixes and sevens with the vernacular. I mean the man was never out there in the street playing with other kids in his boyhood days. He has never had to walk from school with other children in the scorching sun. He has never shared a fat cake (legwinya) or ice mint, romantics or xxx sweets with anybody. In totality he has never had to depend on any individual for anything. He has never had to ask a friend or a neighbour for a top up to his pocket money like most of us did. He has never been bullied by older boys whilst playing marbles or street soccer. He has never had his big toe nail ripped off by a stone because he didn’t have a pair of soccer boots like most of us, it’s a pain he doesn’t know. He has never been rejected by some pretty little girl in his neighborhood or at school and being made a joke butt for being rejected. I mean what girl would refuse advancement from the son of Sir Seretse! Her mother would have cursed the little slut for the rest of her life.
Thus he doesn’t have friendship or ally in his vocabulary, so how could he remember that he owed Jakes anything or Jakes deserved to be specially elected. Jakes and company failed dismally in their homework of choosing a leader to deal with the marauding Barataparty or there probably was no alternative.
He doesn’t see things our way. To him, Jakes is now earning twice if not more than twice what he was earning in Cabinet so why should the man not be happy? That also put poor Jakes in a predicament because you can never say no to the man’s offer, to him that is more than an insult for which you would remain in his bad books forever. This must have deterred Jakes from telling the man that it is power more than money that he is more accustomed to.
Today Jakes, who has traversed different weathers and terrains to make sure that the BDP remained in power, spent days away from his wonderful family and absorbed a hail of insults for his defence of BDP has as his boss somebody who doesn’t even know a freedom square, let alone how a microphone looks like. Indeed time erodes gratitude more quickly than it does beauty.
I am yet to hear of an MP in this country who lost incumbency to reclaim it in the next elections. So in my opinion, Jakes’ political obituary is already being printed. Miracles do happen though, whoever thought that one day we would have an independent MP winning elections like Mokaulengwe Modubule. Maybe, just maybe, Jakes will also go into the history books to be the first MP to lose incumbency only to regain it. But don’t be fooled, miracles are few to come by.
Jakes might decide to take the last gamble in 2014 by quitting his lucrative job for elections if he is not vetted out like most are going to be. To me this will be a well calculated risk because his job is a political appointment and with the odds staged against his BDP, the chances are his replacement after the 2014 elections is already being touted. But should he by a whisker win elections then he can come back and taste what it is like to be a backbencher of a minority opposition rather than face the embarrassment similar to that of Rre Lekaukau by having Brigadier Kgokgothwane remove him from office under surveillance with absolutely no disrespect for Rre Lekaukau.
In 2014 Jakes will be heading towards his mid fifties and after 2014 I don’t see the BDP bouncing back before 15 years if it doesn’t dissipate, this means for Jakes the good old days of being at the helm of power are now history, for good! If, and emphatically if, the BDP does ever come back to power it will be with a younger generation other than that of Jakes. Actually Jakes and co will forever take the flack for having brought down the BDP and let me warn you Jakes, the tenderpreneurs will be nowhere to be seen so as you guys fall into their game of destroying your party know that when times are hard friends are few. The frequent radio callers will even forget that there is something called radio.
There are people who genuinely love the BDP and there are those who are using it for their personal gain and unfortunately the latter are the ones exacerbating its downward spiral. Jakes to me comes across as a true lover of the BDP so in the event that it does not dissipate after 2014 I foresee Jakes being amongst those who will usurp the mammoth if not impossible responsibility of rebuilding what their trump card Khama would have destroyed (for Khama himself does not like politics so I don’t foresee him hanging around during the reconstruction of the once mighty DOMI KE YA ME.) After all with age not on his side to come back as President to continue to add another 24 D’s, there will be nothing further to enthuse him because the man is in love with only one thing, power.
Had it not been for Jakes and the A team, Khama would have lost in Ghantsi against PHK and who knows how the tables could have turned after that. The Durban July handicap is around the corner and unlike Jakes, people must take caution when betting, bet on the winning horse!
Rammidi should take a free lesson from Jakes. If by some miracle the BDP does win in 2014 one thing certain is Kanye North is not going back to the BDP. At least Jakes had one advantage; he had never trampled over Khama’s toes, something which Rammidi has done. He will not even get a specially elected Council nomination. He is a brave and gutsy boy though; I bet he will go the route of high risk high returns rather than the low risk low return venture.
