Kentse Rammidi pauses for a second and a mischievous smile plays across his lips as he remembers: “That got me in trouble with my colleagues in the A ÔÇô Team faction.”
Rammidi, the quintessential conformist had rebelled against President Lt Gen Ian Khama and the A-Team faction to back Daniel Kwelagobe from the rival Barata-Phathi faction for the position of Chairman during the 2009 Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) central committee elections in Kanye.
The maverick assistant Minister of Local Government has always presented the BDP with two very different profiles. There is Rammidi the conformist who stepped down from the contest for a central committee position in 2009, following persuasion by President Khama.
Then there is Rammidi the rebel who has broken ranks with the President and is now talking about trading his Cabinet post for the position of BDP Secretary General.
Whichever of these two Rammidi’s shows up at the party National Council next month could be a decisive factor on whether the party embraces a proposal by Khama and Kwelagobe for a compromise or goes for an all out central committee elections contest.
For party members who feel that democracy and the party Constitution should be allowed to have their say, Rammidi comes across as the new poster boy of the BDP internal democracy movement after he announced his plans to step down from Cabinet and contest for a central committee elections, a few days before Khama and Kwelagobe presented their proposal for a compromise over the weekend in Molepolole.
Rammidi, however, is more concerned with ensuring that the party stays in government than with protecting its legacy of democracy. For now, everything is still up in the air. True to his signature two step dance between rebellion and conformity, Rammidi who fancies himself the BDP spark plug man says:“What is the use of holding on to a Cabinet position only to be voted out of power in 2014. A Secretary General can make a party win or lose elections.” Curiously, in the very next breath he talks about how he does not want to rock the boat, and would wait for the party National Council in March to decide on the proposal by Khama and Kwelagobe for a compromise list instead of central committee elections.
While President Khama seems to believe that a strong government and popular programmes can win him general elections, Rammidi insists that, “You do not win elections through a strong government; it is a strong party that wins you an election. When we went to the elections in 2009 Lobatse was a huge construction site. In as far as government programmes are concerned we were doing very well, but our position as a party was weak because of the internal squabbles. That is why we lost that Constituency.”
Rammidi, to his credit, is not one of those BDP members who are floundering in the complexities of the country’s politics and are wont to peddle claims that the breakaway Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) is a storm in a tea cup.
He admits without prodding, that with the emergence of the BMD, decades of political status quo are being swept aside. “As the BDP we would be in denial if we do not accept that the formation of the BMD poses a threat for us in the next election.”
Rammidi has been racking his brains trying to place a political history to thousands of faces wearing orange “BMD rocks” T-Shirts. He hazards an explanation: “I cannot place these people in the political landscape of this country. I however believe that these are scores of apolitical voters who have now found a home in the BMD. These swing voters are a very important constituency that may decide who wins the next election,” he says as a matter of fact.
Rammidi has an eye for changes in the country’s political dynamics and a finger on the pulse of the public mood. “I have a connection with the people”, he says. This connection has stood him in good stead as the party savior during elections: He snatched Kanye North, a traditional Botswana National Front (BNF) stronghold from the clutches of opposition. He was assigned as campaign manager for the Phitshane-Molopo by-elections where the BDP brushed aside a strong rival in BNF. He was sent late to help campaign in the Mabutsane by-elections where he rescued the BDP which was on slippery ground. He also helped the party capture Kgalagadi North from the opposition BNF. And not so long ago he was assigned to head campaign efforts to retain Tonota North after the death of former minister Baledzi Gaolathe. “With my experience of working with the people I believe I can add value to the BDP leadership. A Secretary General can make a party win or lose elections.”
For BDP blind loyalists, Rammidi comes across as a bit of a thorn in the flesh. He thinks nothing of taking issue with some of the party positions in public. He says things like, “We should debate and consider the issue of political party funding. People of this country should fund the democracy that they enjoy. These are some of the contemporary issues that we need to address or risk becoming irrelevant to the current political thinking.”
