Letter to Seretse
Thalefang Charles | Friday July 18, 2025 11:54
I believe what you are about to read is not deserving to be coming from a lowly commoner from Goo-Tshisi ward. This was definitely a responsibility for Ditimamodimo. I was hoping maybe my elders, bo Rre Titus Mbuya, from whom I inherited this big responsibility would send a more senior missive. But since no one stepped forward, I have taken this mighty responsibility to pen you yet another letter. I must be honest and tell you that this letter was triggered by what happened on your birthday this year. But I will be getting ahead of myself if I start with the events of a couple of weeks ago. Let me go back nine months from now. Allow me to tell you what everyone has been avoiding to tell you. Phuti, your party has lost power. After 58 years of Domi’nation, the once-mighty Domkrag has been reduced to a minority in Parliament. Edison’s son, who entered the 2024 General Election with unshakable confidence, became the first one-term president.
To his credit, he conceded gracefully, which is a rare sight in Africa and that earned him great admiration from the victors. By the time the final votes were tallied, he had already called the President-Elect to congratulate him and even invited the media to witness the peaceful handover at the Office of the President. Dr Kenneth Koma’s party, Botswana National Front (BNF), has finally led a coalition that defeated Domkrag. Puo-Phaa was joined together by two of BDP’s splinter parties and the old Botswana People’s Party (BPP), (yes, it is still alive) and formed the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC). The coalition is headed by the BNF president, a flamboyant young man from Mahalapye, Duma Gideon Boko (who insists on being called 'My Boy'). Now, you might be wondering: Has your beloved republic fallen into the hands of Pamphlet No.1 educated communists from Dr Koma’s study groups with safari suits and Chairman Mao hats? Not quite. It doesn’t seem like we got commies in power. The new President is a Harvard-trained human rights advocate who is considered a social democrat. He has long killed that BNF monkey of the old seforanta ideology that modelled the party as a peasant movement with leaders donning modest clothes to be different from the opulent Capitalists. The President is always looking dapper and elegant like those pompous Ngwato men – dikwete.
He wears designer labels, always clean-shaven and not like those bearded commies who shunned the bourgeois outlook. The Mahalapye boy has also shunned cadre deployment and is still working with the senior civil servants that were appointed by Domkrag. But the comrades have started to voice their displeasure with the pace of the changes. One BNF veteran from Molepolole recently did the puo-phaa on this issue saying, “Our leadership has veered off course, adopting paths similar to the very regimes we once opposed”. But the President has remained resolute that he will not be making the mistake of cadre deployment. The comrades are returning to Palapye this weekend for the first BNF congress as a ruling party and 27 years since the infamous Palapye Debacle. The congress, (apart from revising the outdated BNF anthem – that still mentions the 'ruling Domi' six times) is expected to mandate the leadership to reflect on principles and revolutionary ideals of the BNF – seforanta. Although we are nine months into the UDC administration, change has been slow. The Mahalapye boy promised a “spectacularly different Botswana in three years,” but for now, we remain in the tunnel. Phuti, the country is said to be very broke. Immediately after the new administration assumed power, the new Finance Minister Ndaba Gaolathe, son of the former Bank of Botswana governor and Finance minister, Baledzi Gaolathe, told us that they found no money in the purse. Baledzi’s son described it saying, “Sekgwama se makgwakgwa”. The diamond revenues have dried up. A decline in global diamond sales, increased competition from lab-grown diamonds, and struggling global markets are said to have led to a sharp decrease in our revenue. Some Batswana are blaming the previous administration for looting the treasury. A forensic audit is underway, revisiting claims of a missing P100 billion, a scandal so messy it forced the courts to order a public apology to your rich family friends from South Africa. This 'sekgwama se makgwakgwa' situation was a sad anti-climax for a new Botswana because the Mahalapye boy had made sweet promises of better a life, including raising the living wage, students’ allowances, and old-age pension.
The Finance ministry has literally warned us to go back to eating motogo and quit the cheese because diamond money has run out. Phuti, 59 years later, we have failed to successfully diversify our economy from the diamond revenue. After being led by a farmer, an economist, soldier, a teacher, and now a lawyer, we are still talking about diversifying and transforming our economy from over-reliance on diamonds, which six decades later still account for 90% of exports. The new President moved swiftly to renegotiate the De Beers deal, adopting a charm offensive in Antwerp just weeks after taking office. This was after Edison’s son had adopted a hardline approach demanding more from De Beers on the new deal. Some people even blamed the diamond sale slump on Edison’s son. On the news from Serowe, your Kgosi has returned. After his self-imposed exile in South Africa and Eswatini, Ian finally came back – first to unseat Edison’s son, then to reclaim his place as Kgosi Khama IV. After 100 years of regency, Bogosi ja ga Mmangwato is held by its rightful heir. Bangwato were jubilant watching him take his royal seat ko makaleng aga Khama, flanked by Tshekedi Khama I's grandsons – bo rrangwaneagwe. He has since retired from politics, taking his seat in Ntlo ya Dikgosi. But even Ian seems impatient with the new government’s pace.
At your birthday commemoration, standing before your bronze statue, Ian unleashed harsh words against his successor. It was that public tantrum that forced me to pen this letter. He arrived brandishing his notorious whistling posture, with his aides carrying a briefcase of 'never-seen-before' newspaper clippings about the Three Dikgosi’s UK visit for the president. (No one told him that copies of those clippings exist at the National Archives). As a representative for the Khama family, Ian slammed those that led to him and his brothers running into exile. He decried his family’s persecution despite their immense contribution to the development of Botswana. He listed the roles of all the Khamas, from your grandfather Khama III to your last born twins. Edison's son just sat there awkwardly listening. Fortunately the Mahalapye boy had conveniently missed the event, citing illness, and avoided the embarrassing former Domkrag leaders' public drama.
Meanwhile, (I am sorry that your beloved Domi is now occupying just a footnote in our letters), Domkrag has a new president – Mpho Balopi, a young business man and former disgruntled minister under the administration of Edison’s son. He is the first BDP leader who is not also the President of Botswana. And we will wait to see if he can revive the mighty red jack again. A kalo, Phuti. P.S. Whilst in exile, Bangwato used to have renewed hope when they saw Ian at Eswatini's Umhlanga Reed Dance around a bevy of beautiful topless maidens, hoping King Mswati would inspire him to at least win one maiden. But owaii, o ipoetse hela Phuti.