Friday, November 1, 2024

UDC scores own goal

At the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) in December 1991, the then South African President, F.W. de Klerk launched a scathing attack on the African National Congress (ANC) accusing them of dishonesty by “negotiating with a pen on the one hand and a gun on the other”. De Klerk was concerned about the ANC’s failure to disclose the location of their arms caches.  Luckily for the ANC, they had Nelson Mandela who angrily and very strongly responded to de Klerk’s remarks. Mandela said he was gravely concerned about the behavior of Mr. de Klerk that day by being less than frank in attacking the ANC. “Even the head of an illegitimate, discredited minority regime, as his is, has certain moral standards to uphold”, Mandela said, adding that, “if a man can come to a conference of this nature and play the type of politics he has played-very few people would like to deal with such a man”.

In their dealings with the Botswana Democratic Party, (BDP), the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) seem to be doing exactly what the National Party was doing to the ANC or they are not far from that position as described by De Klerk then. In their first issue of this year, the Sunday Standard newspaper carried a front page story about Dumelang Saleshando’s “secret talks with BDP leadership” in an attempt to negotiate easier payment terms for election petitions legal bill. Saleshando is the UDC vice president and is also the president of the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) who is UDC’s contracting partners.

The BCP did not enter the race to petition the outcome of the 2019 elections.  They properly advised themselves. All petitions except maybe one were filed by the BNF election losers. The BNF are UDC’s other contracting partners whose president, Duma Boko is currently fighting for his political survival at his BNF and at the UDC as well. They had four elected MPs but they are now left with two following the defection of two others to the BDP. This has made them more vulnerable than ever before. Recent media reports show that the relationship between Saleshando and Boko may be getting weaker. Boko is on record as saying in politics, there are no permanent enemies. I think it follows therefore that, in politics there are no permanent friends. It is understood that in his quest to emerge a hero, Saleshando recently approached the BDP chairman, Slumber Tsogwane and Secretary General, Mpho Balopi seeking a possible solution to the UDC’s financial crisis created by election petitions. Saleshando wants the BDP to lower the bill which is said to be huge and making life difficult for the election petitioner losers. It is not a demand. It is a plea which may even require him to go down on his knees to the BDP.

As things stand of late, the sheriff is looking for those petition losers with a view to attaching their properties.  This is a very tough assignment as some of those in the wanted list may be playing hide and seek game. It seems the sheriff is unable to locate some and that those he has been able to locate, he has found that the properties in his list are not in their names. I am not sure if the bank accounts are also not in their names or are empty. I am also not sure if immovable properties cannot be attached or they are also on other people’s names. If I were writing a football story, I would be saying the election petition losers are sending the sheriff dummies which they should have sold to their opponents.

Ironically, in the same issue of the Sunday Standard newspaper, the BNF Secretary General, Moeti Mohwasa who is also UDC spokesperson, speaks a different language which may certainly frustrate Saleshando’s efforts. Mohwasa is quoted as saying that the “People’s Court” whose purpose is to reveal allegations of electoral fraud by the BDP, will be held in the first quarter of this year. Both Saleshando and Mohwasa are in the UDC executive. This may reflect a case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. Saleshando is negotiating with a pen while Mohwasa is using a different type of weapon aimed at portraying the BDP in bad light politically. The question one may ask is Saleshando aware that Mohwasa was pursuing efforts to ensure that the “People’s Court” finally materialises after two failed attempts when he solicited sympathy from the BDP over election petition costs? If he were, why didn’t he advise Mohwasa that the statement he issued would jeopardize his efforts because it would antagonize BDP officials. From what we hear from press reports, BDP officials whom Saleshando met, were non-committal preferring that the matter be discussed by counsels of both parties. But even if they may not have been hostile to Saleshando’s presentation, would they still remain calm after learning that the “People’s Court” whose sole purpose seems to be a mere publicity campaign was still being considered?

The answer to both questions is a big “No”.  Again in all fairness, much as the UDC wants to oust the BDP, the later would feel comfortable if pastures are not greener on the other side. Therefore it makes sense for the BDP to say to the UDC or individuals affected that you took a gamble at your own risk. You were advised and promised funding for the court case but nobody forced you into it. The best thing to do is to comply with the court order. I am aware that some court orders are never implemented until they become redundant. Example is the Lutheran Church case at Ramotswa which was delivered by the High Court and endorsed by the Court of Appeal but was never implemented perhaps because of lack of the political will. The BDP does not appear to be in a position to turn a blind eye in the present case. This is like scoring own goal.

Meanwhile, the country’s lawmakers will soon descend on Gaborone for the budget session of parliament. Since the last general elections, debates in parliament have been characterized by character assassinations, unsubstantiated allegations and to some extent, finger-pointing and fighting mood.  Rulings by the Speaker are often questioned or ignored. Numerous points of orders are raised where they do not apply. This is shameful. It is even worse when ruling party MPs allow themselves to be dragged into that type of game by the opposition. The public expect ruling parties to be exemplary. If for instance they could all react to issues like the Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Kgotla Autlwetse, the better. I watched him when he presented the bill which addressed floor crossing by councillors in the last session of parliament. He was aggressively challenged by one or two oppositions MPs claiming that he should be the last person to argue against floor crossing because he came to parliament through a nomination process. Autlwetse steadily and convincingly responded to such utterances unemotionally. His response was punctuated by Setswana proverbs which were little understood by some in the opposition block. They objected to the use of such but the Speaker, Pandu Skelemani ruled them out of order saying that Autlwetse was using perfect Setswana. We need MPs who can emulate Kgotla Autlwetse even if they are being unfairly and unreasonably attacked.

That Bill was preceded by a similar one which makes it mandatory for a vacancy to be declared in a constituency in the event an elected member of parliament crossed the floor. Both Bills did not enjoy the support of the opposition. Some of the reasons advanced for their rejections were that the voter was more interested in the candidate that in the party he represented and that declaring vacancy in the constituency was unfair. The other reason was the costs involved in the by-elections. In 1998, the BNF suffered its greatest split when 11 out of the 13 MPs resigned from the party to form the BCP.  The BCP then became the official opposition party. The BNF leader, Dr Kenneth Koma embarked on a crusade consulting the people about the developments in the party. He had two questions as the basis for his mission. In Gaborone West for instance, the question was “ re tsile fano go botsa go re a ke lona le neng le rometse Paul Rantao kwa Palapye go ya go nthoga” (we have come here to ask you if you are the ones who sent Paul Rantao to Palapye to insult me?)  The rally was well attended and the audience responded with a deafening “NO”. 

The next question he posed was, “thank you, but tell me again, do you still regard this Paul Rantao as your MP”? Again the answer was a resounding “NO”. Wherever he went, that was the pattern of his approach to the problems in the BNF camp. The following year, the country went to the polls. Almost a the 11 MPS who formed the BCP after defecting from the BNF lost the elections. Some of them retraced their move back to the BNF. After being welcomed by their former party, they were allowed to contest elections in their respective constituencies under the BNF ticket. They won the elections. This historical fact contradicts the view that the voter looks more at the personality than the party. Again if it were so, Wellie Seboni would have beaten Peter Mmusi in Gaborone South in the eighties because of his charisma. MPs are free to cross to other parties but they must do so knowing that by-elections are imminent in their areas. They can enter the race again and if their personalities are more appealing than the parties contesting, they will retain the positions. 

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