People often get perplexed at the dearth of quality and also absence of coordination we are seeing play out in parliament among ruling party MPs.
Too often these Members of Parliament look enfeebled and disoriented.
They look at the executive and they are clearly awed.
The end result is inability to stamp their authority and perform their duties, much less extract any concessions from the executive.
There is a history to all of it.
Much of it can very easily be attributed to a split that sired the Botswana Movement for Democracy.
The formation of the BMD resulted in large numbers of young politicians leaving the BDP.
The leaders were Gomolemo Motswaledi, Botsalo Ntuane, Samsom Moyo Guma, Kabo Morwaeng and Sydney Pilane to name but a few.
The split left the BDP standing as an empty shell – a huge juggernaut that in reality was unable to function even at its half capacity.
Since that split happened the ruling Botswana Democratic Party has totally failed to groom new leaders.
Over the years nothing concrete was done to address the vacuum left by the departing cadres inside the BDP.
The split happened under Ian Khama. The split had a big impact on the BDP, but the party was never annihilated.
Except for only a handful, many of those who left had initially bought into the Khama dream. They wholly believed in his near religious righteousness.
By the time they left, they were disappointed, disillusioned and disgusted.
It has been ten years since the split occurred.
For BDP, time has not been the best healer.
Khama has now left the BDP.
Many of the BMD founders have since gone back to the BDP.
But the BDP is still being held fully accountable of Khama’s follies and the BMD split.
The BDP continues to pay for the mistakes that occurred during and after that split
The BDP youth wing, traditionally the seedbed of youth talent has never recovered since the split.
The result has been dormant structure that has struggled to gain any level of dynamism.
There is no hope of talent emerging from it chiefly because the main party has left it unguided and radar less.
Worried by the onslaught, the BDP has in some instances opted to recruit from the opposition ranks.
This has had limited success chiefly because new arrivals from opposition have generally been given a cold shoulder by the bulk of BDP members. It often has to do with envy and jealousy.
Traditional members have watched with envy as these incomers are often catapulted to positions of power and authority inside the party.
Many of the former opposition cadres that are today at the centre of power inside the BDP include Lotty Manyapedza, Chillyboy Rakgare, Anna Mokgethi and Meshack Mthimkhulu.
Manyapedza is deputy mayor of the capital city – a very powerful position by any standards.
Rakgare, Mokgethi and Mthimkhulu are cabinet ministers.
There are more others.
The aftermath of that split might be with the BDP for at least thirty years, supposing the party moves really fast to start grooming its next generation of political leaders.
This is because leadership does not grow under trees. It takes time to groom and nurture it.
A true leader has to know the history and culture of the organization – this applies to both politics and business.
The reason why many of the BDP backbenchers and indeed ministers seem lost in parliament is really because they are indeed lost.
They are being called to defend the party positions and party principles that they were never schooled in.
People like Bernard Bolele, Botsalo Ntuane, Nickson Marumola, Thatayaone “Tips” Gabotlale, Odirile Motlhale, Fankie Motsaathebe, Kentse Rammidi and Isaac Seloko were all thoroughbred politicians that were steeply schooled in the BDP traditions.
Many of them have either turned their backs against the BDP or politics.
The BDP is all the poorer without them.
The BDP was stronger when it had multitudes of people like them. They were the anchors.
They would be invaluable were the party to create a proper party policy committee.
The party could also use them, not for positions but to create a party school where everyone aspiring for a position in the Central Committee, parliament and council would have to attend.
Their departure has brought in a vacuum that has now been filled by Christian Greeff, Tumisang Healy and many others.
These are all good people. And they mean well. But throwing them into a deep end cannot be a sign of good political maturity on the part of the party.
A political party is not a mechanical object.
It is a living being whose members really have to be initiated in its principles for them to fully defend it and spread its gospel.
Even if a leader happens to join from outside, they still need to go through the drill, understand and internalise the ethos before they can fully understand all the intricacies surrounding culture and traditions.
Of all MPs, Fidelis Molao is probably the most steeped in the party culture and tradition today, which is by itself is not a great thing given his age.
This calls for introspection.
The breakaway of the Botswana Movement for Democracy has been a watershed moment for the BDP.
The event has been epoch-making. And the BDP has never really overcome much less known how to handle it.
When it first happened, there was really no strategy of how to deal with it.
What hazy strategy there was kept shifting.
Initially it was to ignore the BMD. When the party grew organically, made waves and started to send shivers down the BDP leadership spines the strategy shifted towards destabilizing it.
When that too failed, the strategy shifted towards targeted recruitment from it.
By the time of Gomolemo Motswaledi’s death, the BMD was badly weakened.
It was his tragic death that resuscitated both the BMD and the larger Umbrella for Democratic Change, fueling the duo’s fortunes in the 2014 General Elections.
BMD by all intents and purposes has now disbanded. Many of its founders retraced their way back to the BDP.
BMD returnees have not been given the same reception as those recruited directly from other opposition parties.
Of course people like Kabo Morwaeng and Douglass Letsholathebe who are senior ministers in cabinet today are BMD returnees. Banks Kentse who heads the all-powerful and consequential BDP Communications Committee is another notable returnee.
But generally, they have been left to scatter all over. It is like the BDP enticed them to come back so that it could finish them off.
When president Mokgweetsi Masisi complains that nobody is defending him or the party, I think of talented politicians like Dithapelo Tshotlego and Rraoboe Mpuang – who knew what their party stool for.
Just why is the president not politically empowering all the talent at his disposal that could serve him and also the country remains a mystery?
The recent history of the BDP is a sad story of a party too eager to destroy its own.
