Cabinet Minister Nonofo Molefhi reckons he can win the chairmanship of the Botswana Democratic Party and following that, the State Presidency under his own terms. Chiefly, these terms include waiting until the last minute to declare himself a candidate. In the meantime all the other contenders are lining themselves up and opening themselves to public scrutiny while also creating for themselves campaign war chests in the kind of money needed to see through such campaigns. Minister Molefhi’s strategy to wait until the very end is flawed and mistaken in many fronts. First and foremost he risks denying himself the necessary foot soldiers needed to traverse the country on his behalf to campaign. Secondly he risks portraying himself as a reluctant candidate. To his detractors, he also risks selling himself not only as a wrong horse, but potentially as a political clown. If the minister continues on this path of excessive caution and slow moving he will inevitably be humbled.
Excessive caution in an era of fast moving events is dangerous. For the last year and a half, there has been public talk that Molefhi has ambitions to run as BDP Chairman. And also as State President! He has chosen to neither dispel nor confirm such persistent talk. Caution, it would seem is his chief trademark. He’s playing his cards close to his chest. That strategy of caution presupposes that for one to succeed in politics one always has to move under the shadows. That too is not correct. If he has ambitions to become BDP chairman and after that president of the republic, Molefhi should state it loud and clear. Ambition, we have to remind him is an honour. And as Julius Caesar would put it, the Gods always show approval of it. He might think caution is a convenient campaign tool. But under the circumstances it comes across as unpreparedness, or worse lacking in conviction. Excessive caution poses a great risk, not only to Molefhi but to his followers and sympathizers many of who would literally have their political careers exterminated simply for daring to express their sympathy for him. Much of Molefhi’s caution is rooted in a belief that politics can be converted into a clean descent and bloodless sport.
That might be true elsewhere, but not in the case of the BDP. So far all indications are that Minister Molefhi is planning for some choreographed grand entry into the campaign fray. Ordinarily, that might be a good strategy. But under the circumstances that too might prove too little too late. Politics will always be a blood sport, endlessly churning casualties, and in some worse cases even fatalities. His caution will with time be interpreted as a lack of will power. And in politics lacking power means lacking political convictions. And that is unpardonable. Nonofo Molefhi does not have to look too far for proof of the extent to which his strategy is fraught with flaws. Kgalema Motlhantlhe, an immensely likeable South African politician who once had all going for him to become a long term leader of that country saw his chances and with that his career go up in smoke simply because he tried too hard to be descent against bloodletting, stone-throwing and insult-hurling insurgents inside the African National Congress.
Motlhantlhe waited until the last minute to announce that he was available to lead both the ANC and South Africa. By that time the events had moved way beyond his control. In the end the outcome was not about Motlhantlhe’s qualifications nor about his decency. Rather it was about him coming into the race too late. Just why Molefhi wants to turn himself into Botswana’s version of Motlhantlhe is not clear to me. Molefhi’s strategy has frustrated his admirers and badly turned off his potential grassroot volunteers who for a long time were too eager and too ready to risk everything by supporting him. To these people ÔÇô and there are too many of them, Molefhi’s candidacy if it ever comes to pass will present the last hope for their party to usher in a new sheriff in town and cut a clean break with the past. That is exactly what Motlhantlhe’s supporters in South Africa too had hoped for. Motlhantlhe in South Africa failed to recognize this. Molefhi in our shores seems too not to recognize this. No wonder, in a private conversation recently, a senior BDP leader kept referring to Molefhi as Motlhantlhe.
Molefhi might still yet muster courage and declare himself a serious contender and candidate. But further delays and indecision will mean that he will face an uphill battle. From now onwards inside cabinet he will be viewed with suspicion. In fact we understand that has already started. In everything that he does, his two supervisors will inevitably question his motives no matter how clean his intentions. He might ultimately be forced to resign his ministerial position if not for anything, at least so that he becomes his own man. Such a dramatic action might also lend him the much needed momentum. Declaring one’s political ambitions and doing so early enough is in politics a golden rule never to be broken.
