When Executive, Legislature clash
Ryder Gabathuse | Monday March 17, 2025 11:15
The party has lately been gripped by brouhaha with some of its legislators strongly feeling that the Executive is unduly extending its hand into matters of the Legislature.
Five months as head of State and government since October 2024 General Election UDC historic victory, the Boko-led ruling party has been presenting a picture of a stable government until last Friday when two arms of government; the Legislature and Executive came face-to-face. Botswana is a parliamentary democracy and this means no head of State is going to run the government without Parliament that has elected him since there are no direct elections for State President.
After vanquishing the former 58-year ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), Boko finds himself face-to-face with the backbench.
Trouble that has polarised debate within the party and society stems from a recent outburst by Lobatse MP, Kamal Jacobs, who had cried foul to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Dithapelo Keorapetse, alleging that he had received death threats from President Boko and his bodyguard, Nic Mathew.
Jacobs also claimed that the threats were delivered after he had asked the Minister for State President, Moeti Mohwasa, if he was aware that the appointment of the Chief of Staff, Dr Oupa Tsheko might have been illegal. He had further challenged the minister to state the role and functions of the Chief of Staff, Permanent Secretary to the President (PSP), the National Strategy Office as well as the Government Implementation and Coordination Office (GICO).
The offending WhatsApp message purportedly from the President reads in part: “ Comrade, attacking government under any excuse equates to treason in my books. I welcome attacks from the BCP and BDP, but attacks from within are inexcusable and are punishable in the most severe manner.” The President comes across as a leader who wants to exert pressure on seemingly ‘errant MPs’, now it seems he had rubbed some repelling MPs the wrong way who seem hell-bent on taking the President head on instead of simply acquiescing.
Jacobs did not take kindly to the message allegedly sent by President Boko and the bodyguard.
Last week Thursday, the visibly agitated Jacobs asked the Speaker if his life was in jeopardy and whether he should go into exile because of the question, further dramatising the matter. The legislator would further get assurance from the Speaker that he was fully protected by the powers and privileges of Parliament.
Another UDC legislator for Mogoditshane, Galenawabo Lekau, frustratingly added his voice during the Jacobs debate and said security agents harassed his wife after the MP asked a question that appeared to have rubbed the minister the wrong way.
Tuesday this week, Jacobs retracted the allegations he had earlier raised pleading with the Speaker of the National Assembly to expunge his statement from the Hansard, indicating that he could have handled his complaint better.
The clash between the Legislature and Executive is not without precedence as in 2007, former president Festus Mogae found himself besieged with a ‘rebellious’ backbench that refused to rubberstamp his decision.
It is common cause that every president shows his roots through his blunders. Problems of this nature are not peculiar to President Boko as his predecessors had a fair share of troubles in their tenures.
During the heat of the moment in Parliament, Mogae had likened his party’s maverick MPs criticising them to an “uncastrated Billy goat (phokwana ee tsenang mo sakeng le lesha e bo e kgorotha kgorotha”).
Mogae’s outrage was akin to a leader who had lost control of both his party’s leadership and government. The former president chose to use a BDP Women’s Wing conference in Serowe to accuse the ‘independent’ MPs of blackmail and selfishness at the expense of the national agenda. He was worried that the MPs wanted to arm-twist his government in a horse-trading exercise. This involved MPs passing the Judges’ Bill and government reciprocating by reviewing their salaries. Mogae also cited the then stalling of the rural electrification project as a major setback and blamed the MPs for it. The stalemate between parties over the privatisation of Air Botswana hogged the headlines.
Mogae also told BDP Women’s Wing function that the MPs maintained that they wanted their pay structure reviewed before they could pass the Judges Bill. The then chairperson of the BDP parliamentary caucus hit back and denied Mogae’s charges. “Mogae was telling the opposite of the truth. We set no conditions whatsoever for the passing of the Bill,” said the chair.
Mogae would also respond: “ If MPs criticise me in public and in the press, I will go to the very people that brought them and then in Parliament and explain my position and I do not regret that.”
Meanwhile, retired University of Botswana (UB) political commentator and public policy analyst, Adam Mfundisi told Mmegi that allegations by MP Jacobs against the head of State and government are unfortunate and scandalous if confirmed to be true.
He is steadfast that the Botswana constitution provides for three organs of the State that are supposed to be separate, distinct and operate within their province without interfering with each other’s functions and responsibilities.
“In addition, they must have separate personnel in order to avoid arbitrariness, abuse and conflict of interests. De jure, the aforesaid are relatively true but de facto, there are overlappings as well as the dominance of the Executive (President) over both Parliament and the Judiciary (Courts),” said Mfundisi. He stressed that in reality an unelected President enjoys intensive and extensive powers in so far as the power of government is concerned. Therefore, the political commentator is of the view that the President has the audacity to cajole Parliament for what he terms wastage of parliamentary times on peripheral matters, for example question and answer sessions in Parliament.
According to him, Parliament as per the Constitution of Botswana enjoys, amongst others, three fundamental functions, legislative, representation and oversight.
“In line with these fundamentals, MPs have the right to make the Executive accountable for their actions or inactions, decision or indecision, and commission or omission. It is unfortunate for the President to dictate to Parliament on what to do or not to do in the execution of their electoral mandate,” he highlighted.
The independence, freedom and autonomy of the Botswana Parliament is long overdue and a necessity after more than 58 or more years of political independence.
In relation to Jacobs’ case, Mfundisi feels it is disturbing and an affront to Botswana’s democratic principles and values undergirding Botswana body politics. He describes Botswana as a constitutional democracy and a Republic where power resides with the people. Elected MPs must represent the electorate effectively through parliamentary processes without fear or favour.
All MPs take an oath to observe, protect and defend the Constitution of Botswana. “To be threatened by any person or authority is a threat to our liberty, democracy and republican government. We have gone through different times in the last 15 years of democratic deficits, and we expected a change of government to usher in democratic consolidation rather than regression,” he further explained.
The President, the political commentator insists, “must at all times mind his words, actions and decisions because whatever he says becomes law. His words must be measured because he is the most powerful man in Botswana politics.” He ran short of describing the UDC government as a kakistocracy as reflected by actions and decisions that are not well thought of in terms of implications or consequences.”
He believes that the President should talk the talk and walk the walk to engender trust and confidence of the electorate. MPs should speak their minds and vote with their conscience without any fear of recrimination.
Although he does not have information on the response by the President to Jacobs’ allegations, he however, expected denial and apology for the political debacle within the UDC. He challenges the President, as the sole Executive, to show humility and integrity in his words and actions at all material times.
“Voters have high expectations on the UDC government having suffered humiliation and narcissistic behaviour in the last 15 years or so of both former president Ian Khama and past immediate former president Mokgweetsi Masisi administrations. President Boko must do better in responding to allegations against him. People must respect the Office of the President,” concluded Mfundisi.
Government chief whip and Boteti West legislator, Sam Digwa, explained this week that the UDC has a parliamentary caucus, which had meetings scheduled for Tuesday morning until their time was taken over by Parliament meetings as they now meet on Tuesday morning. Now, the UDC has a challenge of meeting every Tuesday, as they will be at Parliament.
Digwa explained that normally, when the caucus meet, it does not necessarily look at the questions of the MPs to the Ministers as such questions are directed to the respective Ministers.
He explained that it has since come to their attention that some of the questions do not even require the process of passing through Parliament as MPs can simply go to respective ministries and pose their questions and would be duly responded to.
He, however, emphasised that he does n0t want to be misconstrued to be encouraging self censorship or whatsoever.
“By the way, MPs’ questions are not forwarded to the party secretariat but are channelled directly to the respective Ministers without the party influence,” he explained.
Speaking to the UDC director of policy and strategy, Dr Patrick Molutsi, highlighted that his party has been holding meetings and training MPs on party rules and procedures. He indicated that every political animal that goes to the extent of being partisan do make choices of a party and the reasoning behind. He explained that as the UDC, they do have a caucus whereupon people come to appreciate the position of the party as a collective.
But there questions asked as to why Lekau and Jacobs did not engage the Leader of the House, the Chief Whip, party secretary-general and others within the party structures to air their concerns.
“In the last Parliament, the UDC had a challenge with former MP Yandani Boko and our former coalition partner Botswana Congress Party (BCP), which chose to negate everything that was UDC until they bolted out of the coalition,” he observed.
He stressed that the importance of holding caucus meetings is to remind their comrades about their rights and responsibilities consistent with the party rules and regulations.
Molutsi also indicated that what the UDC MPs did was not the way a party member would do, as there were many windows for them to exhaust before giving a statement in Parliament.
He personally thinks that with incessant education, the UDC MPs will improve on how they tackle inner party situations.