Both Mpho Balopi and Botsalo Ntuane have not formally announced if they are available to contest the position of Secretary General for the ruling Botswana Democratic Party.
Balopi is the incumbent.
This means that it was under his watch that the BDP slumped to its worst showing in history.
It would be unfair to blame Balopi for all the atrocities, but it is important to remember that he was the leader of a select crowd in Maun that promised BDP members to take all the 57 constituencies.
We all know how far low they fell short of that ambition.
Some key members of that crowd are as we speak somewhere in political wilderness having left under circumstances that are unlikely ever to be explained to those who elected them in Maun.
Notwithstanding the party’s poor showing, it is fair to state that it is still possible that Mpho Balopi might still want to offer himself for reelection. He may want to mend what chinaware was broken under his watch.
He also seems to have liked and enjoyed the ceremony that the position of BDP Secretary General has offered him over the last few years.
And there is yet another trump card: He is still in President Ian Khama’s good books. Or so it seems.
The BDP is a strange and rare creature. Up to now there have still been no scapegoats proffered for the catastrophe at the polls. And as far as we are aware, no demands for such scapegoats have been forthcoming from the general membership. While everybody is burning inside, nobody is courageous enough to say it.
The upshot of it all is that at least at face value, it seems to be business as usual. And notwithstanding the fact that everybody is talking of an apocalypse in 2019 when the next General Elections are due.
At least three (possibly four) people have announced that they will be contesting the position of BDP Chairman.
Yet not a single person has come forward to say they are in the race for the position Secretary General.
Given the perilous state in which the party finds itself, this is most bizarre indeed.
Under their Constitution, the Secretary General is the defacto Chief Executive of the party.
They are the foot soldier who acts like the civil servant, there to ensure that the machine stays well oiled.
This brings us to Botsalo Ntuane.
Multitudes of BDP members have literally camped at the doorstep his house, there to beg and plead with him to stand for the position of Secretary General.
Almost invariably he has listened to all of them ÔÇô but has thus far failed to either say yes or no.
This indecision borders on the verge of irresponsibility.
For Ntuane, as is the case for Balopi, it may seem like a discrete strategy to wait until others have announced their intentions, but the truth is that time is running out.
Ntuane is advised to internalize the bare fact that patience on the part of his potential supporters is also running thin.
Supporters may love and revere him, but support from such members is neither cast in stone nor is it infinite.
In politics, what often starts as support can very easily mutate into anger and outright hostility.
Additionally, in every situation there are always vultures and other opportunistic predators waiting in the wings.
A further delay to seize the opportunity means that those who never had the intention to run are getting more and more emboldened by the vacuum that they see.
For Ntuane there may be some comfort and indeed convenience in seeking a presidential seal of approval before he announces his intentions.
Under the circumstances such a strategy comes at clear and unmitigated costs.
Such a strategy has clear redline limits when the person you a deferring to is already on their way out.
As it is the BDP is already thinking of a life after Ian Khama.
Many people are holding him directly responsible for the predicament in which the party finds itself in today.
This means that in looking for a savior the party is as a matter of fact not looking for his acolyte, much less his political descendent.
Those sentiments will become more shrill and more nuanced once Khama’s term of office draws to an end, and the party itself clamours to break from his bondage, which by the way will not be too long down the line.
Embedding oneself to a person whose term is coming to an end is never a great political strategy.
It is worse when that person is generally perceived not as a hero but a liability.
 
Back to Balopi, time is overdue that he really has to become his own man. That is if he is in politics for the long haul.
Last year’s General Elections provided a splendid opportunity for him to prove his organizational skills.
The outcome, based strictly on the results has not been encouraging.
If he wants a fresh mandate he is going to have to face an increasingly jittery party membership with a plausible account of what really happened.
Any continued  docility to the president cannot be a satisfactory part of that account.
Its time he graduated from being a monkey to becoming an organ grinder, to paraphrase an English idiom.
Emotional ball games being played by Ntuane and Balopi can only benefit one man: Ian khama.
They confirm that he remains as relevant as ever.
For ordinary members eager to get past him and face a future of hope and promise this can only be a tragic cycle of paralysis each one of them wants to bring to an end.
Ntuane and Balopi may relish sizing each other for longer.
But they do not control time, in the same way they have little control over events.
