'I will pass the mantle'

Mompati Tlhankane | Monday July 11, 2022 06:00

Masisi was speaking Wednesday during the international summit on constitutionalism and democratic consolidation in Africa held in Gaborone.

The three-day summit co-hosted by the government of Botswana and National Democratic Institute (NDI) is among others meant to counter the global trends of democratic backsliding and strengthening support for constitutional term limits. Masisi is serving his first term after taking the baton from his predecessor and now arch rival Ian Khama in 2018.

Masisi then led the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) to victory in the 2019 general elections winning by a majority of 38 seats against the country’s tri-party opposition coalition the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC)’s 15, an outcome which was challenged by the latter.

The UDC then petitioned the court contesting the outcome of the elections citing “irregularities in some of the constituencies”. In January 2020 the Court of Appeal (CoA) dismissed UDC with costs indicating that it has “no jurisdiction to entertain these appeals”.

Now, Masisi is heading towards the 2024 general election with the hope that Batswana could vote his BDP back into power again. “I look forward to passing the mantle when my time is up as the people will decide,” he said. Masisi emphasised that he will replicate what former presidents such as the late Sir Ketumile Masire and Festus Mogae did when they handed over power when their term was over.

Even though he got the baton from Khama before their bitter fallout, Masisi specifically mentioned the late Masire and Mogae because the duo had worked with NDI on the latter’s global outreach programmes. “These champions believe in strong institutions and passing the mantle. We remain resolute in the belief that we are better served by strong institutions rather than strong men and women or anything in between. My firm belief is that this summit represents our strong partnerships to renew and strengthen efforts to respect constitutional term limits as a pillar of democratic governance and peaceful political transitions across our continent,” Masisi further said.

Masisi’s promise comes at a time when Africa is pushing for term limits and presidents to respect and facilitate regular transition of power. Speaking of transition of power, Masisi was sworn in as president of Botswana on April 1, 2018 in what was a peaceful power transition. But the relationship between Masisi and Khama went sideways soon after when the latter was reportedly accused of trying to rule from the grave.

While Khama himself has dismissed the reports that he was not ready to relinquish power, the former army general has now made it his mission to see to it that Masisi is democratically removed from power. Khama even quit the BDP and helped form the Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) on the eve of the 2019 elections. Historically, in Botswana no president has ever refused to hand over power when their term was over. The topic of term limits was also explored further at the summit during a panel session about research on constitutional term limits.

Different panelists shared thoughts on the challenge to constitutional term limits, citizens’ perceptions, and efforts to sustain democratic rule. One of the panelists, Yvonne Oyieke revealed that there have been efforts to modify term limits in many African countries especially in the west but to no avail. She said some countries have been pushing back against term limits. Oyieke, who is the deputy secretary general of the African Network of Constitutional lawyers (ANCL), said in a country like Botswana where there has been smooth transition of power, there is an observation that there is the dominance of one political party.

Oyieke added that Botswana, alongside South Africa, has seen a transfer of power from one figure to another but the power has remained in one political party for many decades. The BDP has been in power since the country’s independence in 1966.Oyieke questioned what it means for democracy and good governance when one party can rule for many years uninterrupted.