In November 2006, when Lt. General Mompati Merafe told Leader of the opposition in Parliament, Comrade Otsweletse Moupo of the BNF, that he was an embarrassment to the politics of Botswana, I thought that was too much for poor Moupo.
Hardly six months had passed after Log Raditlhokwa had stated that Moupo’s ‘London Fiasco’ was not his last scandal and that he would still damagingly tarnish the BNF many times before the 2009 elections. Raditlhokwa warned the BNF that allowing itself to be led by ‘leaders operating with a village mentality will misshape its personality and blow a hole in it’.
Raditlhokwa advised the BNF against being led by someone who is deeply rural in outlook and takes serious matters lightly, (Gazette 14th June 2006).
Lt General Merafhe had stated that Moupo is the first leader of the opposition in Botswana history to fail to respond to the state of the nation address. ‘In the history of Botswana, we had never had this situation. This was inept,’ he told parliament, as MPs on his side burst into laughter. Moupo also joined the laughing MPs, (Gazette 14th June 2006).
This bug has caught up with the ruling BDP with one MacDonald Peloetletse turning himself into a one person BDP propaganda machine.
Recently, he was spouting off on Gabz FM radio about the BDP and the country. If BDP wants to continue to take itself seriously then it needs to retrospect because, in Peloetletse, they are parading a secret weapon of mass destruction as its mouth piece.
His militant attitude and behaviour is not portraying the party in positive light and I previously cautioned President Ian Khama to be very careful of such characters in the Sunday Standard of the 15th November 2009.
For they will come in large numbers and they will all pretend to love him, they will sing praise songs in chorus and some will shout on top of their voices and call every radio station in defence of the master.
A wise man once said, if you have nothing to say, just shut up. This is my honest and humble advice to Rre Peloetletse. Having served as a junior officer in the Botswana Defence Force, one expects much more from him in terms of discipline and tolerance.
As a husband, father and a businessman, Rre Peloetletse must start taking himself seriously and must not turn himself into nothing more than a retarded school child, who should be educated better and learn to keep his childish views to himself. Politics is clearly not his game and it is also not for those who believe that they can easily graduate from being mere lorry drivers into political celebrities on account of being praise poets and repositories of flattery.
Rre Peloetletse must stop turning himself into being a political bouncer and must appreciate the fact that the BDP has been in power for the past 43 years and therefore, it is one of those popular organisations created for the people by the people, for the benefit of the people.
The people in this case being Batswana with a penchant and yearning for the ideals of democracy.
Rre Peloetletse’s intolerant behaviour is irritating and outright embarrassment to the politics of Botswana. His mentality will misshape the party and will seriously blow a hole to cause more trouble to the already troubled political group.
BDP and its leadership should seriously consider taking gross disciplinary actions against this political hooligan. If they decide to keep him, then they should take him for severe anger management therapy.
He is a boom wanting to explode and is suffering from verbal diarrhoea.
Whenever he opens his mouth, it is insults, disrespect or just plain idiocracy. He is making BDP a bunch of clowns and they are now not representative of the past political legacy but rather want to turn us into puppets and slaves who should not question anything or even provide suggestions for improvement of public policy.
Rre Peloetletse needs to be reminded that academia is not responsible for his poor academic credentials. He should not feel agitated when they share their expertise and knowledge.
He should, in fact, be very grateful that indeed Botswana’s human capital development has not gone to waste.
Instilling fear and sending them threatening sms like he previously did with me, will not help either.
BDP and its leadership should be seen to take deliberate initiatives and steps to bring him to order and must criticise his method of communication.
* Seleke is a Lecturer of Public Policy in the Department of Political and Administrative Studies (University of Botswana). He writes in his personal capacity.
