It is that time of the year again, the election year where there is so much drama, display of “me nice” attitude, boot licking and sycophancy for those who have high expectations to being appeased with rewards for being praise poets and repositories of flattery. After all it is their turn to eat; their political activism is not driven by passion and the desire to serve.
Former President of the Republic of Botswana QKJ Masire recently wrote an open letter to Botswana Democratic Party (BDP). In the letter Masire challenged the BDP to dare call him for a disciplinary hearing, after BDP Secretary General Mpho Balopi told the same paper that the party is in the process of disciplining the former President for his utterances at the funeral of a departed opposition political leader Gomolemo Sir G Motswaledi.
Masire wrote “Three weeks ago Mr Mpho Balopi, the Secretary General of BDP published in the newspapers that he was going to drag me before the BDP Council of Elders to be grilled about what I said at Gomolemo Motswaledi’s funeral. I am still waiting. I wonder if he has now changed his mind. If so, I am sorely disappointed; because failure to carry out his threat will deny me the opportunity to hear what was so offensive to Domkrag that I said at the funeral of my friend. Is my sin the fact that I did not get briefing notes from the Secretary General or his opinions before I went to speak at the funeral? Indeed, “pelo yame e tletse bogalaka” to find that my name and those of my stalwarts is so easily, cheaply and wantonly dragged in the mud by fellows who were either boys, toddlers or yet unborn, when fundamentals or principles that were to be corner stones of our policy or philosophy were crafted. These were principles which in essence provided for multi-partisan and allowed Batswana to freely form parties whose sole interest is to serve Botswana to the best of their ability. Not to “eat” or to “boot-lick”. It is the fellows who say they are in the high position of the party who claim that they are there to ‘eat’ and those in the executive of the Government who are saying they are there to ‘boot-lick’ who bring the party into disrepute, that should be brought before the council of the elders to answer for their sins”.
Hardly a week after Masire’s open letter to the Sunday Standard, Mmegi Monitor of the 15-09-2014 carried a story with a headline, “Masire Moves out of the State House”. In that story the paper alleged that former President QKJ Masire confided to friends that he is moving out of state house soon because the residence has been bugged by security forces who are continually an eaves dropping on him. This unfortunate turn of events is indeed saddening and one may be tempted to dislike politics just like President Ian Khama does, as per his revelations with the Financial Times interview Feb 2009.
Masire’s open letter to the Sunday Standard shows an emergence of a new breed of vultures and greedy parasites within BDP. Because it is their turn to eat, the Mafikizolo’s, are finding themselves having to please and are now easily, cheaply and wantonly dragging the names of senior statesmen names in the mud. How sad! Masire’s successor Dr Festus G Mogae also recently vented out his frustrations. Speaking at the African Leadership Forum on 31 July 2014 in Dar es Salaam, Mogae accused Khama’s administration of disrespecting the rule of law. Mogae further argued that the problem however, in Botswana is that if you criticize your successor, people think you want to rule from the grave. Masire and Mogae’s statement were viewed as subversive by the ruling party and both of them according to the statement that was issued by the BDP Secretary General Mpho Balopi were to be summoned by the party to explain their public statements.
One can only hope that this time around, there will be no more drama driven by greed by those who think they are supermen who think they work better than other members of the party. Sunday Standard news paper of the 8-14 November 2009 carried a story with a title heading “BDP Big Mouth Silenced”. That article revealed all about the greed and vulture mentality that exists, that some people enter politics driven by the desire to benefit from reciprocal obligations and expect benefits from being “patriots” driven by petty favoritism.
I must point out here dear reader that it is not my intension to open wounds. Ours is the story of the past. We have long made peace, thanks to the intervention of a pair of my twin friends and their brother, who without their intervention we could possibly be talking about something else. All that I can reveal now is that, the brother was heavily wounded; he was in an uncontrollable state of mind, was very dangerous and could even go to the extent of harming himself. In most of our encounters he always displayed a lot of anger, was emotionally disturbed and one day just became one day and on seeing me in one of the up market pubs in Gaborone, that brother could no longer control himself; he went berserk, pounced on me like a wounded buffalo. It happened so fast, and the next thing I saw another patron lying on the floor spreadeagled in a dizzy helpless state. He looked very puzzled with question marks written all over his face as his attacker walked away pompously back to his table shouting Ek sel ge jou donoor, boikie, ek sel ge jou bleksms boy boy, I will F……k you up. Unfortunately it took a while for that Mampara to realize that he had missed his target. He had hit pounced on the wrong guy.
That was then. The number one crime I had committed was an article I had written about some political Mafikizolo, some wannabe who felt used for he did not reap anything from his political activism. The Mampara claims he was the b├¬te noire of opposition politicians, academics and the private media, a one man loose canon that became reckless to the extent that the moron even went to the district Commissioner’s office and registered for nominations as specially elected councilor for Gaborone. The Mampara even photocopied his application forms and gave certified copies to his influential colleagues in the party. After failing to make it in the list he cried out loud claiming to have been robbed, thinking that he was some kind of a super man who worked better than other deserving candidates. On displaying such behavior one commentator remarked “we are now at an era of ‘foolitics” with those who believe that they can easily graduate from mere lorry drivers into political celebrities on account of being praise poets and repositories of flattery”, a political set where imagination and intellectualism are suspended by feckless opportunism, silliness and greed.
It is that time of the year again, the atmosphere has changed, there are now new kids on the block who care less about the party whom traditionalist call Honey suckers, shrewd tenderpreneurs who have suddenly become instant millionaires. After all it is their turn to EAT. The tension is high and so much back biting is going on, no one wants to be outdone. It is a FIASCO and as to whether President Khama will ever see them as un-principled, intolerant, selfish vultures and monkeys, as he once said about his BDP colleagues is another thing. History will tell.
Thabo Lucas Seleke writes from, Johannesburg, South Africa
