Makgato’s timely return
Sharon Mathala | Monday March 11, 2024 06:00
Speaking of the future, a few weeks ago when Minister Philda Kereng was dropped from Parliament to take up a diplomatic post in Nigeria, many tipped Makgato as the likely next Special Elected Member of Parliament (SEMP). But the post was later given to Boitumelo Gofhamodimo. Now that SEMP reports are a thing of the past, Makgato admitted that she had read some of the reports from her farm and laughed them off.
“I was given an assignment (Botswana’s High Commissioner to Australia) to go do it for four years. I have done it and I am back, that was and has always been my intention,” she remarked. Makgato, who shocked everyone in the build-up to the 2019 General Election by standing up to former President Ian Khama, says she attributes her bold character to her childhood upbringing. She tells this publication that from a younger age, she was taught to speak and live her truth.
Asked why she would leave a glamorous diplomatic job abroad to return to the dirty game of politics, Makgato rhetorically asks whilst laughing, “Who said I have come back for politics?” She then added, “God gives people different talents; the day you meet with your maker he is going ask you what you did with your talent. When I left I was coming from a job where I was MP, a minister. I was the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) Women’s Wing chair and it’s a lot and then you go to diplomacy and the scope of the job is not as broad.” Mmegi further put it to the former diplomat to respond to those who said her diplomatic post in 2020 was a thank you from President Mokgweetsi Masisi for standing up to the latter’s rival, former president Khama. Makgato was vocal about her ‘choice’ between the two former allies. But perhaps one of the highlights of the tension was when she dared her former boss: “Khama should respect President Mokgweetsi Masisi and other leaders and stop using belittling remarks like Masisi waa mo twaela (sic). He should show respect and discipline he claims to preach,” she was quoted then.
“I am Dorcas before politics and I have competencies that I have beyond politics. The fallacies that I was being thanked, I don’t see it that way. It is no different from when I was minding my own business in the private sector (during Khama’s tenure) and was called to serve in Cabinet. My diplomatic post was not a thank you very much. I see it as an open position. I am a soldier and I was deployed to serve and so I did.” Although Makgato refused to be dragged into the Masisi/Khama feud anymore, she attributes it as just another challenge transitions face.
Looking back according to Makgato, each presidency transition has had its fair share of challenges that have been different each time. “Every season there are challenges, every transition has its own challenges. Wherever there is a transition there is going to be challenges and we must be prepared for it. It is the nature of the game; it is transition and it has different forces that are pulling it,” she said. Commenting on the general belief by some quarters and comments on social media that the trend of recent is that for one to succeed within the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) they have to be a bootlicker, Makgato says: “The BDP as a party is competition with others so it is their business to spread a smear campaign. These are political games to a large extent. There might be a little bit of that but they may elongate it so it comes across as true, but the BDP that I know is a party that says party first before individuals. All our energies as democrats are focused on the BDP. If it means Dorcus must stand back to help the party, then that will be.”
Asked if she has ambitions of becoming president of Botswana, she uttered: “Not necessarily, that is my answer and I say this because the world is bigger than being president.” Commenting on the Khama factor that eventually led her to lose her MP seat, Makgato downplays this saying that there were many factors that had a bearing on how the results came out the way they did.
“I would not pin it into one factor, some of it had to do with the fact that we spent a lot of time in court and not on the ground because people wanted to take me off the voters’ roll, some of it had to with the fact that I was always out in my capacity as the minister so this fallacy that there is only one factor is not necessarily true. I lost an election but I gave it my all,” she added. Asked about the women’s representation in Parliament and if she would back up any female candidate because of their gender, she responded: “I consider myself as a person before my gender and I have said that to a lot of women, that they are a person before their gender because as a person you have a skill set; gender is an add on, it is strategy bound to fail. I have never really entertained this whole notion that I am a woman and therefore use it to say vote for me because I am a woman; I perform, I deliver and I say based on this, vote for me.”
Makgato also pointed out that she has often found herself having to defend herself for her utterances and that some say she would have been further up in political ladder. “I am a free spirit. I always try to measure what I say. Granted, if you go back to my younger days, maybe I was more blunt. I am happy that I have been a diplomat and have learnt that you can say the same thing and add a sweetener on top of it and achieve the same without being blunt. Naturally, I call it as I see it,” she said.
Regarding the BDP primary elections, popularly known as Bulela Ditswe, as they continue to cause tensions within her party, Makgato believes in the process. She admitted that certainly it has its challenges and if need be it could be looked into to refine where there are loopholes. Asked if she is contesting for Tswapong South, formerly Sefhare/Ramokgonami Bulela Ditswe Makgato, said she would respond when the time is right to comment or confirm. She denied reports that she belongs to some faction as the BDP gears up for Bulela Ditswe.