The nation was rightly horrified when news of Mogoditshane MP, George Kgoroba, throwing a water-filled bottle at Gaborone South MP and Deputy Speaker, Kagiso Molatlhegi, spilled outside parliament. Those in and outside parliament agree on the impropriety of the MP’s brazen act of violence. At a subsequent debate the following day, some MPs said this was the first time something like that had happened.
“First” has to be qualified. It was the first time an MP had attacked another in full view of members of the public but from what has been alleged in the past, it wasn’t the first time that MPs had fought physically. The first would be an incident in which a president became collateral damage when trying to break up a fight between two cabinet ministers in a National Assembly office. The story is that the president stepped in between the combatants when a chair-missile was already hurtling towards its target at full speed. Resultantly and in complete negation of the slogan that Botswana Democratic Party members have “steel knees” (“e khukhu e e mangole a ditshipi”), the president had to make numerous trips to Europe to have his shattered knee put back together by specialist doctors.
The ritual murder of Segametsi Mogomotsi in 1994 provoked passions, especially in Gaborone where students at the University of Botswana ran amok and to the National Assembly building where some in the mob invaded a parliament in session. The worst-case scenario of indiscreet students seized by a mob-psychology trance taking over a sitting parliament are too ghastly to contemplate and since then, members of the Botswana Defence Force take up armed guard at the National Assembly when the upper house is sitting. It just so happened that more than a decade later, one of those students became an opposition MP. The story is that as part of the pack that invaded the chamber, this future MP took one step inside and immediately froze as the full weight of what he had just done descended upon his youthful shoulders. Overwhelmed, he turned and fled. The information about this MP’s youthful indiscretion somehow reached the ears of former vice president, Ponatshego Kedikilwe, who shared it with everybody else during a parliamentary debate but without naming names.
What appears to have been a long period of peace and quiet was in fact a lull before the storm. Francistown South MP, Wynter Mmolotsi, was not generous with the juicier details but from what he said (which no one rebutted), in the last parliament two BDP MPs came to blows somewhere around the National Assembly buildings. This revelation came as the house debated the Kgoroba incident. Describing the incident as “embarrassing and scary”, Lands and Housing Minister, Prince Maele, asked the Vice President, Mokgweetsi Masisi, in his capacity as Leader of the House, whether any punitive action (he suggested suspension) would be taken against Kgoroba. Before the minister could go any farther, Mmolotsi reminded him of an incident in which “he once fought with Robert Masitara in the parliament precincts and the action that he is suggesting should be taken, was not taken against them.” Reputedly a black belt in some martial art, Masitara is the former MP for Gaborone West North. At the time of the alleged fight, the Speaker, Gladys Kokorwe, worked in the diplomatic service as Botswana’s Ambassador to Zimbabwe. Maele didn’t refute Mmolotsi’s account about him being involved in a scrap with Masitara. Addressing a press conference the following day, Mmolotsi reiterated that no action was taken against two nameless BDP MPs who fought in the 10th parliament. This was a wise legal move because MPs have immunity against prosecution for what they say in parliament and not outside.
It turns out that a lot more is said and happens off the record. The Minister of Agriculture, Patrick Ralotsia, referred to an instance where one MP he did not name came to parliament wearing shorts and carrying a knife. He asked Masisi whether it was difficult to take “stern action” against transgressors such as the knife-carrying MP. Much later and when the house was debating a different matter altogether, the supposed culprit (Maun West MP, Kgosi Tawana Moremi) outed himself noting in the process that the minister’s account was unnecessarily melodramatic. Tawana recast the story in innocuous terms, deftly defanging it of the willful malice that was writ large in Ralotsia’s telling. The MP’s version is that he went to see Molatlhegi in his National Assembly office in the company of Tati West MP, Biggie Butale and Mmolotsi, who is the Opposition’s Chief Whip. In what he described as an amicable interaction, Tawana said that he asked Molatlhegi to call the Parliamentary Counsel to the office over some matter he didn’t elaborate on. It was while in the Deputy Speaker’s office that “I took out a knife ‘this big’ [gesticulating with hands to indicate length] from where I had kept it.” It is unclear why Tawana had to take out that big but he didn’t suggest it was ill-intentioned.
The Leader of the Opposition and Masitara’s successor, Duma Boko, has himself been implicated for inciting violence off-the-record by no less a person than the Leader of the House. The latter’s account was confirmed by Francistown West MP, Ignatius Moswaane, who described Boko as “the leader of the syndicate which causes fights and all [chaos] every day.”
“Every leader is a role model. I remember last month there was a statement from the Leader of Opposition on radio in which he said police officers should be beaten. It was broadcast to all Batswana that it would not be wrong to do so, and that no one would persecute them or charge them for doing so. Just recently on Thursday, the Leader of Opposition said in this House that members of the BDP (Domkrag) should be beaten,” said Moswaane claiming further that he overheard Boko saying in the house that BDP MPs should also be beaten up.
Masisi also claimed to have overheard Boko inciting opposition members to violence.
“I can only sadly confirm that I have heard Honourable Boko on a number of occasions, including when President Geingob was here, making commentary that was inciteful to a conduct that would otherwise not be promoted. I have said this to him for a number of times. I have also said this to Honourable Gaolathe a number of times that he must try and talk to Honourable Boko,” said the Vice President referring to Namibian president, Hage Geingob, who had visited and addressed parliament the previous day.
However, Masisi could not pursue this line of attack because as became apparent a short while later, Boko had made the alleged incendiary comments off the record from his seat and with his microphone off ÔÇô he was basically heckling. This means that what he said is not part of the Hansard and cannot be used as evidence against him.
The hero the day was the previous day’s villain: Kgoroba apologised unreservedly for his misconduct. However, there is an issue that remains to be resolved and because it has not been dealt with, it is almost guaranteed that there will be a similar incident. Opposition MPs complain that the speakership is biased in favour of the Frontbench and the ruling-party Backbench, a point that will be very easy to prove from a cursory reading of the Hansard. Mmolotsi found himself caught in a classic catch-22 situation when he tried to table a vote of no-confidence in the speakership: he needs the permission of the latter to table his motion and was denied such permission. Masisi’s own analysis is that the speakers are fair and he refuses to even consider that continual bias on the part of the two speakers could be justification for what Kgoroba did.
Symbolically, Botswana’s parliament has inherited an interior design element that was inspired by real-life violence in medieval England. When introduced, the lines in front of the government and opposition benches served a practical purpose – to prevent either side attacking the other during a debate. The benches were two-sword lengths apart, more than the distance a man can reach with a sword. This rule was made because members were allowed to carry weapons into the House of Commons in its founding days. As a nod to legislative customs of a former colonial master, the Botswana parliament has a white line that separates the government and opposition benches which MPs are not allowed to cross during debates.
