As the National Executive Committee of the Botswana Patriotic Front went into a meeting last Monday morning, seven of its members were looking forward to a cross-border weekend trip to South Africa. Also making the same trip would have been delegation from the Umbrella for Democratic Change, which was to be led by party president, Duma Boko. The Botswana delegation would have spent the weekend at a Rustenburg resort, ironing out their differences and thrashing out conditions for contesting the 2024 general election a unified political force. They were under the impression that the trip was still on after what had become an acrimonious NEC meeting had ended. That was until the Acting President, Caroline Lesang, delivered a discouraging message from the patron, former president Ian Khama, who lives in self-exile in South Africa with his twin brothers, Tshekedi and Anthony.
Days ago, Khama had made prior commitment to fully finance the delegates’ trip and stay in Rustenburg: transport, accommodation, food – the whole nine yards. Such generosity was also going to be extended to UDC delegates. However, these plans were made against the backdrop of disagreement over the relocation of the venue for the next BPF’s national congress.
The party has cleaved itself into factions, one led by the Khama brothers (Ian and his younger brother, Tshekedi) and Guma Moyo, who served a stint as assistant finance minister under Khama. While he is a newcomer to BPF and largely on account of his strategic generosity, Moyo has amassed enough clout to enable him to take over NEC. He used such clout to have the NEC chose his home turf of Tati East parliamentary constituency as the venue for the national congress – where new leadership will be elected. Moyo and Tshekedi are vying for the presidency at that congress.
The faction led by the Khama brothers wants the congress moved from Tati East to Jwaneng-Mabutsane constituency, whose MP seat was delivered to the BPF on a silver platter courtesy of floor-crossing by Mephato Reatile. The latter will himself be vying for the position of chairman at the upcoming congress.
The argument given by the Khama faction for changing the venue for the congress is that Tati East would give Moyo an unfair advantage over those he will be running against – it is possible for some more party members to declare their candidacy at the last minute. The Moyo faction is also making the exact same argument – that Reatile would be similarly favoured if the congress is held in his constituency.
When the NEC met last Monday, the Khama brothers joined virtually from South Africa. Once more, the two sides failed to find common ground on the issue – at which point Khama thought that he could use his dominance in the decision-making machinery of the party to make his preference known and close the debate. BPF sources say that he has done that repeatedly and has been known to deploy, to devastating effect, a steely stare that reduces dissenters to a bundle of nerves. Not this time.
From what we learn, the Moyo faction resisted very strongly with Lesang, Moyo and Baemedi Kudumane (Secretary for Political Education) leading the charge and taking on Khama head on. Putting the matter to a vote would have been a non-starter because the Moyo faction constitutes more than 95 percent of the NEC. Under ordinary circumstances, Khama signs off a virtual call by observing simple traditional courtesy of bidding the other side goodbye. A source says that is not what happened at the Monday meeting.
“He just disappeared from the video call without making indication that he was hopping off,” says the source. “He was obviously very angry.”
However, even after the realisation that Khama had unceremoniously stepped out of the digital meeting, the NEC meeting ended with the understanding that the weekend trip to Rustenburg was still on. Technically, that was still the case but there were drastic changes that the members of the delegation soon learned from Lesang – whom Khama had subsequently spoken to by phone. The changes were that Khama would pay for the transport and food only and that the meeting should be wrapped on Saturday, after which the delegation should travel back to Botswana. The new arrangement excluded accommodation because the delegation wouldn’t be spending the night in Rustenburg. The initial plan had been that the joint BPF/UDC delegation would travel in two combis but in terms of the new one, they were to share just one.
Determined to both be assertive with Khama while placing party interest front and centre, the negotiating team immediately came up with its own completely different plan. It cancelled the Rustenburg trip and proposed a meeting at Woodpecker Lodge, a hospitality establishment 15 kilometres south of Gaborone along the A1 Highway. Woodpecker is collocated within a theological seminary that is owned by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Botswana.
As a sign of the times, some in the BPF negotiating team are said to have stated that Khama can keep his Rustenburg goodies – which they dismissively expressed in Setswana as “A a tsamaye le Rustenburg wa gagwe.” Apparently, there was also some reticence about making a cross-border trip over land because state intelligence operatives are watching senior BPF members like hawks in the sky. They feared that these operatives might use the opportunity of this trip to engage in some foul play.
As tensions escalate, some in the Moyo faction are said to have mooted the idea of what could spell doom for the party – “dumping” Khama. The latter may have fled to South Africa but he remains the heart and soul of the BPF, which he founded as part of a multi-pronged strategy to oust President Mokgweetsi Masisi from office. The party’s stronghold is in Serowe, the tribal capital of the Bangwato, whom Khama is supreme traditional leader of. In the 2019 general election, BPF won all Serowe constituencies and there is an understanding, even among the Moyo faction, that the party won these constituencies because of Khama. Dumping Khama would also go against the thinking of both the UDC which is said to be resigned to the fact that, despite the baggage he brings, the former president is still popular with a substantial portion of the citizenry and remains a vote magnet ahead of the 2024 election.
The opposition party talks over the weekend happen a month after the majority party in UDC (the Botswana Congress Party which has the highest number of seats in parliament) announced that it is suspending participation in UDC activities. BPC holds the UDC vice presidency and it is an open secret that BPF is also eyeing the same position.
