From his secret location in South Africa, Botswana Patriotic Front Secretary General, Tshekedi Khama, has tried to invalidate the election of Baemedi Kudumane as Chairperson but may fail.
BPF sources say that ahead of the June 16 meeting, Tshekedi unsuccessfully tried to lobby Central Committee members to not attend a scheduled meeting. One of the items that the meeting tackled was the election of the Chairperson following the resignation of Oboetswe Gabotlale from both the position and party. The party’s constitution says that the National Executive Committee (NEC) shall have the power to co-opt any member of the BPF to replace the one whose membership has ceased.
Tshekedi who is the younger brother to the party founder and former president, General Ian Khama, is said to favour Jwaneng-Mabutsane MP, Mephato Reatile, as Gabotlale’s replacement. Ahead of the meeting, Tshekedi learnt that Kudumane was favoured to win and in an attempt to thwart his election, is said to have lobbied voting Central Committee members, by phone from South Africa, to not show up at the meeting.
Depending on how you interpret the BPF constitution, the lobbying may or may not have failed. Ten members in a 21-member Committee showed up and agreed to co-opt Kudumane. Last Friday, Tshekedi fought back, firing off a letter to party structures in which he argues that the June 16 meeting was inquorate because it didn’t make up a “simple majority” – meaning more than half of the Committee’s membership. On the basis of such belief, Tshekedi said that the meeting was “unconstitutional” and declared its resolutions invalid. Interestingly, the meeting was chaired by Caroline Lesang, the Acting BPF President who is senior to Tshekedi in the party structure. In making his pronouncement, Tshekedi is essentially overruling her.
It seems unlikely that Tshekedi will win this battle because he treading fragile legal ground and precedent is not on his side. He was himself part of a meeting that was held on March 7 this year, that was attended by 10 members. If resolutions of the June 16 meeting are unconstitutional and therefore invalid, the same would apply to the March 7 meeting.
There is something even more interesting: the party constitution specifies the number of members required to form a quorum for all other structures but the NEC. The “simple majority” that Tshekedi has invoked is not mentioned in the constitution and his invocation of it seems to be arbitrary. The term “quorum” is used seven times in the constitution with regard to meetings of the Disciplinary Committee, National Congress, Annual National Conference, Regional Congress, Constituency Congress and Ward Congress. For each one, a specific figure is quoted.
However, that is not the case with regard to the NEC, for which “quorum” is used in an ambiguous sense: “The National Executive Committee may request the attendance of any person to act as adviser at a meeting of the National Executive Committee or lower committee, and such person while so attending shall have all the powers of a member except that he or she shall not vote in its proceedings and his or her presence at the meeting shall not count towards the constitution of a quorum.” It would seem that this is the loophole that Tshekedi is seeking to exploit but if the matter has to be decided by a Central Committee vote, he would lose. Our information is that only four voting members support him while the rest support Guma Moyo, the former Tati East MP who is eyeing the party presidency.
As his brothers (Gen. Khama and Anthony), Tshekedi is now living in self-imposed exile in South Africa. The first to flee was Gen. Khama whom the Directorate of Intelligence Services was on the verge of arresting for unlawful possession of weapons of war. Tshekedi, his wife Thea and Anthony were arrested by DIS in March this year and spent a night at a DIS jail in the outskirts of Gaborone. This arrest was in connection with operations of Seleka Springs, the controversial family business that the twin brothers have managed for decades. Following this arrest, the brothers crossed into South Africa, Anthony and family first and Tshekedi following shortly thereafter, using the Pioneer border gate in Lobatse.
In the absence Gen Khama and Tshekedi, Moyo is consolidating his power and is actually in charge of the party. As patron, Khama is an ex-officio member of the Central Committee and doesn’t have to worry about losing his seat – Tshekedi does. The party’s constitution says that “any member of the National Executive Committee who absents him or herself from three (3) consecutive meetings of the National Executive Committee without justifiable cause shall automatically cease to be a member.” So far, Tshekedi has not fallen foul of this provision but his sojourn in South Africa is complicating matters for him. Against what the party constitution prescribes: he unilaterally appointed Dr. Kolaatamo Malefho to act in his stead but the June 16 meeting rejected this appointment because Tshekedi doesn’t have the power to do so. There could be a technical riddle here because if that meeting was inquorate, then it couldn’t have taken any resolution on Malefho’s appointment. Then again, Tshekedi couldn’t have appointed him in the first place because he has no legal standing to do so.
Our information is that while Tshekedi has attended some meetings virtually, he is not too keen on using technology out of fear that it might reveal his location to intelligence agencies that have reason to keep tabs on him. Senior party members don’t know where he is staying because even when he has to meet them.
