Having a third lobby list in any party elective congress is not wrong. Put differently more than one candidate can compete for one position. Three or four people can compete for the position of Secretary General or Publicity. And it is all in order. I am shocked by some people who seem to be surprised that there is a third lobby list and come out with many excuses on why there is no need for a third lobby list. Top on the list of excuses is that there will be a split vote. People say there is a need to unite against common enemy and that enemy is Duma Boko. In my view this school of thought is destructive to our movement. No one should be regarded as an enemy within the movement. Boko is not only a member of the BNF but also its President. To label him an enemy will lead to factions in the party. People might disagree with his style of leadership but make no mistakes he has supporters in the movement. The BNF Constitutions does not have time limit for presidency.
The president of BNF and stands for elections as long as he or she wants. The other excuse been given is that Gabriel Kanjabanga is not a member of the BNF. It is public knowledge that Kanjabanga was expelled from the movement. However The BNF congress made a resolution that all those who have been expelled from the party if they wish to come back can do so through the normal procedure of applying for admission through their wards. According to his ward, Kanjabanga has applied for readmission and the ward approved his application. The other excuse given by the anti-third lobby list is that Cosmos Moenga is a veteran as such he cannot stand for any position in the Central Committee. One might ask what qualifies someone to be classified as a veteran. And are veterans allowed to hold positions in the movement?
BNF Constitution classify a veteran as someone who has been in the party for more than twenty five years. On that ground I am a veteran. The second question is whether I qualify to be in any Committee of the BNF including the Central Committee. The answer is yes, because I am not in the Central Committee of the Veterans Association.It was at Mahalapye when the Central Committee of the Veterans Association was elected. My name and that of Prof Monageng Mogalakwe and Moses Maoto were proposed and we declined on the grounds that we wanted to stand for elections in BNF Committees movement. If people are afraid of Moenga and Kanjabanga to lead the movement they should say so instead of giving some questionable excuses. Deep down they know we know better than anybody else where the movement is coming from and where it is supposed to be going. Our slogan is Operation BNF Agenda (fulfilling Dr Koma’s Dream). We know BNF’s Agenda; its aims and objectives and how to achieve those objectives.
The Botswana National Front is a mass democratic movement formed to liberate our country from neo-colonialism. The movement is antiperialism and Pan Africanist. We have fundamental differences which cannot be reconciled with Botswana Democratic Party. Dr Kenneth Koma had stated that BNF shall not oppose everything that the BDP does just for the sake of opposing. Some members of the BDP including cabinet Ministries are Patriotic but sadly misinformed and badly advised by pro-imperialists expatriates experts (Pamphlet No1 Page 42). The Botswana Democratic Party is a pro-neo-colonialist Party. It is from this background that patriots came together under the Botswana National Front. Those true Patriots do not all have the same ideology. Some Patriots are conservatives, some are nationalists and others are liberals and others are capitalists and others are socialists or leftists or progressives. What they all have in common is a striving for a totally independent Botswana.The task of the progressive in the mass movement is to give directions. For any liberation to succeed it must be guided by the ideology. It is the Marxist-Leninist ideology which does not only energise the people but also gives them direction.
For all these years that was what the progressives or leftists in the party were doing in most cases they were doing so through study groups, BNF literatures, and contributing articles in newspapers and social media. In essence, they Marxist progressives ought not to be in the Central Committee in order to drive and direct the struggle, due to the fact that they are not thirsty for power. Other groups or forces in the movement decided to control the movement from top and make sure that all the progressive forces are not elected into the Central Committee of the BNF.It worth to note that after the 1994 general elections many opportunists flooded into the BNF hoping that sooner than later the BNF will be in power and they have to position themselves in the party structures. In 1997 Prof Key Dingake one of the great intellectuals of our time wrote an article which appeared in the Mmegi news paper titled: why the left lost in BNF Central Committee. His conclusion was that the left did not go into the elective congress united like other groups and is high time the left prepare themselves to lead the struggle from the front not from behind.
If it public knowledge that the 1997 elective congress results led to 1998 palace coup which led to the split. My analysis or argument if you like is that the anti-third lobby list are really anti the leftists or anti progressives members of our movement. It is high time we stop discussing or debating people but rather discussing ideas as Dr Koma used to say, ideas are more important than personalities. The following are burning issues which we should be debating on our lobby lists;
I BNF guiding ideology. We in the operation BNF Agenda of fulfilling Dr Koma’s dream believe that only Marxists ideology based on dialectical materialism theory can guide and energise and rebuild our movement. II We believe in Federal Constitution as explained by Dr Koma in pamphlet no. 1.
III BNF stance UDC leadership elections. We believe that there is no need for election, for NEC of UDC because UDC is not a party but an umbrella of parties which have elected their representatives. We believe that the UDC leadership should be rotating as was agreed in gentlemen’s agreement between Motswaledi and Boko. Another alternative is to opt for collective leadership as articulated in the Dibeela’s report. In our view election of UDC leaders shall do more harm than good. IV BNF stance on citizen empowerment. We believe in affirmative action. Indigenous Batswana should be given advantages over other Batswana. V BNF stance on BPF membership into the UDC. Our struggle is to liberate our country from neo-colonialism. BPF on the other hand is openly a pro-neo colonialist and pro-feudalism. The very enemies of our people.
We don’t have time to fight personal wars.
*Dr Cosmos K. Moenga is a veteran member of the BNF
