How incumbents ring fence positions
Ryder Gabathuse | Monday August 9, 2021 06:12
Sometimes the differences picked during the campaigns for party positions unnecessarily metamorphose into fully blown hatred and enmity among party activists. Take for example, former senior cabinet member Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi who fell out of favour with her former principal, President Mokgweetsi Masisi for merely declaring her interest to challenge him (Masisi) for both State and party presidency.
That was at a time when the party was heading to Kang for its elective congress. Instead of celebrating that Venson-Moitoi was the first female politician to enrich inner party democracy by challenging the sitting president, her move was treated as insult to the leadership. She was not only dropped from the Masisi-led Cabinet, but was also castigated for causing ‘instability’.
Even the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) Women’s Wing was forced to take sides castigating Venson-Moitoi for challenging the incumbent as if she had done something wrong. Worse still, Venson-Moitoi complained that the spy agency, Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) sleuths were unleashed upon her to terrorise her left, right and centre until she acrimoniously withdrew from the race.
After many years of her continuous service at both party and government, for the first time during the nasty campaigns, she was labelled a foreigner or a Monyasa by her nemesis.
These attempts by incumbents to promote longevity in the elected offices are common across the political divide as such is also common in the opposition parties.
Political pundits say the problem of incumbency longevity in office through hook or crook is a global phenomenon and worse in developing countries due partly to limited resources.
Botswana’s main political players, Botswana Congress Party (BCP), BDP, Botswana National Front (BNF) and Botswana Peoples Party (BPP), have all been afflicted by this political disease of incumbents manipulating the electoral process to stay longer in leadership positions.
“As you rightly pointed out, the BCP leader Dumelang Saleshando has not been challenged since he assumed office around 2010. We must also be fair to the BCP, as it had changed leadership without acrimony. I am also not aware of any potential challenger to Saleshando for the top leadership in the BCP,” said University of Botswana lecturer in Politics and Administrative Studies, Adam Mfundisi this week.
He added: “We should not always assume that for intra-party democracy there must be continuous change of leadership. Unless there is concrete evidence of dictatorial tendencies witnessed that dissuade members from challenging the incumbent, then we can ring the alarm bell.”
To Mfundisi, the BCP leadership has been more democratic and stable than comparative others. He posited that Saleshando has shown that he is politically savvy in and outside Parliament. But, on the other hand, there is a school of thought that by simply Saleshando not being challenged, people could be gripped by fear for being called all sorts of names for daring to challenge the incumbent by hordes of his supporters.
As for the ruling BDP, incumbents in addition to being presidents of the party, they are at the same time presidents of the country.
A BDP president does not only use incumbency in the party but also utilises his executive power vested upon him by the Constitution of the country. Mfundisi asserted that it is not easy to challenge the president of the BDP in Botswana partially due to powers vested in him at party and country level.
He was steadfast that the intolerance in the BDP was witnessed towards the BDP elective congress in Kang where Venson-Moitoi attempted to challenge President Masisi, the incumbent at both party and government.
“The latter mobilised party structures and government institutions to launch scathing attacks against the challenger. The attacks were vicious and rabid in that the Women’s Wing of the BDP was mobilised to demean and demonise one of their own, Mma-V as Venson-Moitoi is affectionately known,” quickly remembered the UB academic.The state machinery was also engaged in denouncing Mma-V’s citizenship status. She was labelled a Malawian citizen or a ‘Monyasa’, a phenomenon new to Botswana body politic.
This was despite that Mma-V had a sterling bureaucratic career in the Botswana public service. Her career in public office culminated into political career where she held various ministerial portfolios. Her citizenship as a BDP bona fide member and a Cabinet member was not questioned until she challenged Masisi.
“She was eventually sacked from Cabinet, a clear sign of political intolerance. There were at the time perceptions that the infamous DIS was unleashed on her, monitoring her movements. This was overt and covert threats meted against her for challenging the incumbent,” reminisced the political analyst.
Some within the BDP interpreted her challenge to be facilitated and promoted by the former president Ian Khama, whom she was an ally at the time.
“The CAVA faction of President Masisi in the BDP adopted an anti-Khama crusade. Anyone who associated with Khama was declared an enemy and needed to be dealt with harshly by all means possible,” he said.
Recently, there has been acrimonious jostling for power between the two top leaders of the BNF - president Duma Boko and his deputy Prince Dibeela. Supporters of both leaders at some stage were at each others’ throats in defence of their positions.
To Mfundisi, the duo’s jostling for power is reminiscent of the African National Congress (ANC) power struggles between former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma or Zuma and the incumbent President Cyril Ramaphosa in neighbouring South Africa.
The UB academic said the power struggle in the BNF may lead to the disintegration of the party if not handled judiciously by both competitors.
He, however, conceded that the incumbency factor works to the advantage of Boko who has more access to the resources of the party. Current structures of the party are supportive of the continuity of the BNF leadership under Boko.
“Factional politics in the BNF have always led to the breakdown of the party. History testifies that. We can also attest that the power struggles bedeviling the three political parties have also been witnessed in the Botswana Peoples Party (BPP) under Motlatsi Molapisi’s leadership,” he said.
He indicated that intra-party conflict is detrimental to the stability and progress of any political formation.
If it takes place at the echelon of the political party leadership, Mfundisi indicated that it becomes more dangerous to a political party. He said intra-party contestations take place within an environment of limited resources. Therefore, there is struggle for wealth, prestige, and recognition.
He was also worried that, “selfish interests dominate the struggle for political power. Power, we must accept, corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The incumbents having enjoyed political power at the helm of the organisation would not willingly relinquish it without a fight. They employ and deploy resources at their disposal to wade off any challenge from other aspiring members.”
Others he said use the processes of sycophancy, sabotage, sell-out, and other unethical behaviour to stay in office. He highlighted that the problem of the dirty hands and Machiavellian philosophy of winning any contest by all means becomes the DNA of the incumbent leader(s).
“Power-hunry leaders engage in unethical behaviours to win elections by hook or crook. Personalised power breeds a cult of leadership, which is detrimental to democratic principles and good governance. The problem with political parties in Botswana is that ‘ winner takes all, and losers loses all’, the UB academic told Mmegi.
In summation, Mfundisi pointed out that those who are in power take all the necessary measures to ring fence their privileged positions and deny challengers competitive space. Democracy is only possible and desirable if the incumbent wins elections.