BPF in trying moment
Ryder Gabathuse | Monday October 31, 2022 06:00
When the BPF, a splinter party from the ruling BDP was launched three years ago on July 6 in Kanye, a village in the southern District of the country, it hit the ground running. Its founding president, Biggie Butale is on record having told the partisan crowd at the Kanye rally: “I would leave Botswana if the BDP wins the next elections.”
Hundreds of disgruntled BDP supporters then decided to follow their leaders who had dumped the ruling party accusing it of undemocratic tendencies.
Some of the BDP members found themselves caught up in the President Mokgweetsi Masisi and former president Ian Khama brouhaha that resulted in the two former allies literally breaking up.
There was incessant uproar as the two leaders continued to go for each other’s throat.
Butale and his comrades took their new assignment seriously and they oozed confidence and yearned to change the government of one of Africa’s longest ruling parties, the BDP.
Butale had just changed party colours from the BDP’s red, white and black to the BPF’s voting colour of sunrise yellow after the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) had approved the party colour and symbol on June 27, 2019. He was literally the cynosure of all eyes.
The BPF was formed, with a tagline of ‘Ke nako’ or it’s time, symbolised by a watch to demonstrate its mission for timely change, perhaps.
Disappointedly, on the elections day in 2019, the BPF could not live up to its hyped expectations as it won only three seats at its main base in Serowe. But, the BPF that year made several assists across the length and breadth of the vast Central District popularly known as the CDC. The strength of the BPF would later be boosted when MP for Jwaneng-Mabutsane, Mephato Reatile crossed the floor from the BDP in 2020 to join its ranks.
There is no doubt that the political hurricane that swept across the CDC at the time, was a result of amongst others a robust campaign led by the respective parties in partnership with former president, Khama.
The BPF seemingly concentrated its efforts largely in the CDC, in an area where Khama is a known paramount chief of the Bangwato tribe whilst in other areas south of Dibete cordon fence there was less work including at Kanye where the party was officially launched.
Khama, who is also the founding patron of the BPF, had targeted some constituencies after clashing with some of the BDP parliamentary candidates like in the case of Bobirwa where he had issues with the BDP’s candidate Francisco Kgoboko. In Sefhare-Ramokgonami, Dorcas Makgato who had waged a political war against Khama spewing diatribe at any corner in the elections campaign suffered a humiliating loss when she could not get re-election.
Vice President Slumber Tsogwane, who is also Boteti West legislator, literally survived the Khama onslaught after his constituency was also placed on the Khama hit list. He would parry a challenge from his main challenger, Umbrella for Democratic’s (UDC) Sam Digwa who had garnered 6,716 votes to Tsogwane’s 7,006 votes.
Shoshong, Mahalapye-East, Mahalapye-West, Palapye, Selebi-Phikwe East, Nkange, Maun constituencies and Ngamiland amongst others, slipped from the grip of the ruling party. Even the Okavango constituency that saw the BDP benefitting when former Member of Parliament, Bagalatia Arone crossed the floor to the BDP, was regained by the BCP.
The beleaguered Butale, three years later finds himself at loggerheads with a faction of the party led by acting president Caroline Lesang that is accusing him of a ‘misdemeanour’ that seems to be uprooting the now suspended Butale from the position he doesn’t want to give away easily.
The Lesang-led faction recently obtained a High Court order for Butale to be removed from the position of BPF presidency after he (Butale) chose to allocate himself the party position despite the national executive committee decision that barred him from executing the functions of the office. Butale was accused to have ‘sexually assaulted’ a youthful party activist, a charge that the suspended BPF president has vehemently denied.
The BDP in 2019 won 38 parliamentary seats or a popular vote of 53 % and Butale is still in Botswana despite his 2019 vow to leave the country if the ruling party wins. Unfortunately, Butale’s remaining in the BPF has left the former Tati West legislator’s political life in a doubtful state as a section of the party wants him out of the presidency after his incessant suspension.
In one of the pledges made in 2019, Butale was adamant that the BPF was going to have strong coalitions with other opposition parties during the 2019 General Election. Besides the ‘voluntary’ assists in some crucial constituencies, the BPF contested the 2019 General Election as a single entity which never gotten any closer to threatening the BDP from its seat of power.
Recently, the Lesang-led BPF leadership purported to have entered into some coalition agreement with the opposition UDC in an endeavour to fulfil an elusive promise made three years ago. The disputed unity deal is skating on thin ice and has left the party a divided lot.
The BPF recently postponed its elective congress where issues pertaining to opposition unity and election of new leadership amongst others were to be attended to and finalised and this has raised speculation that the party leadership feared the congress was likely to reverse some of the political gains made recently.
Even with reports that suggest that the BPF is in disarray, its acting president Lesang is adamant that the party is focused and it is picking pieces with a view to achieving its primary mandate.
To her, even issues of regime change which is the primary focus of the BPF, are on track.
She acknowledges that it is the recent hubbub in the party that seemed to be derailing the BPF to the extent that the party leadership sitting on October 20, 2022 decided to postpone the elective congress in search of peace within its ranks.
“The BPF is not a regional party as some people suggest. We have active members across the country and with that we can’t be viewed as a regional party,” said Lesang this week and added that the party is working around the clock to proof its mettle.
The other reality that the BPF seems to be grappling with currently is the absence of Khama from the daily party activities as he is currently on self-imposed exile in the neighbouring South Africa. Since the formation of the BPF, Khama was the face and chief marketer of the BPF riding on his popularity. No one has so far stepped up to the plate to play the crucial Khama role.
University of Botswana (UB) politics and administrative studies lecturer, Adam Mfundisi this week responding to Mmegi enquiries was adamant that any nascent political party would be afflicted by conflicts and instability especially if it is a breakaway from the ruling party.
Additionally, he feels that the formation of the BPF few months before a general election after a bitter rivalry between the sitting President and former president and their factions within the BDP. “The BPF was not thoroughly thought out with a clear vision, mission, strategy, goals and objectives. In other words, BPF was a product of bitterness and anger against the CAVA faction and the Khama one,” posited Mfundisi.
To the UB academic, there was concerted effort to marginalise and purge Khama loyalists, supporters and apologists.
Khama became the Godfather and patron of the BPF thereby attracting a large section of CDC voters, more so, Serowe constituencies, which was previously the heartland of the BDP.
“The BDP, before the advent of the BPF had undisputed support and following in Bangwato area. Since independence, the northern part of Botswana was the heartland of the BDP due to the influence of the Khama dynasty,” Mfundisi told Mmegi. He added that peace and tranquillity are required if the party will stay on course and eventually join the UDC.
He however, cautioned that if the BPF joins the UDC formation in its current state of “political instability and disunity”, its influence will be diminished, noting that, “A united BPF will have some leverage on any negotiation with the UDC which is also beset with its own political upheavals.”
Mfundisi was also quick to reflect that the BPF is somewhat a regional political party devoid of broader appeal to the whole country.
“I do not subscribe to the notion that Botswana is an exceptional country where the ruling party cannot be defeated without having a single opposition bloc. What is needed is a political landscape that allows competitive elections premised on SADC principles on democratic elections including free, fair, democratic, verifiable and accountable electoral process,” the UB academic further said.
He reiterated that Botswana requires a genuine constitutional reform process that will produce a robust and resilient Constitution.
“Electoral reform that will result in a truly independent electoral body comprising independent and professional people. Newly democratic countries such as Kenya, Namibia and South Africa have developed independent and robust electoral laws and institutions that we can adopt,” he concluded.