Paradox of two presidents
Spira Tlhankane | Tuesday November 4, 2025 11:40
The once-promising party, birthed in the political fires of 2019 and nurtured under the shadow of its former patron, Ian Khama, now finds itself fractured down the middle. Two rival camps, led by Mephato Reatile and Lawrence Ookeditse, each claim the right to steer the party’s battered ship. But as things stand, the BPF appears to be spiralling midair, wings torn by internal strife.
The day of broken unity
The Serowe congress was meant to be the BPF’s rebirth, an opportunity to reaffirm its commitment to democratic renewal. Instead, it turned into a political battleground. As delegates gathered beneath the chandeliers of the Serowe hall, tensions simmered just beneath the surface. Reatile arrived late to the congress and was allegedly denied the chance to address delegates, a symbolic silencing that his camp claims was premeditated. Rumours swirled that the opposing camp, loyal to Ookeditse, had vowed to deny him the microphone “at all costs”.
As the clock ticked and the air grew heavy, disputes over the voters’ roll and the legitimacy of the electoral process ignited tempers. The Congress teetered on the brink of collapse. In a dramatic twist, electoral chairperson Zeke Molefe resigned mid-process, declaring that he “would not participate in a process where the constitution is not adhered to.” His resignation was a thunderclap that split the Congress wide open. What followed was political pandemonium. Reatile, invoking presidential powers under the BPF constitution, announced that he was dissolving the congress. His camp staged a walkout, calling the process 'illegal' and 'unconstitutional'. Meanwhile, Ookeditse’s faction pressed on undeterred, defiant, and determined to see the vote through.
The midnight election
As the night deepened over Serowe, democracy in the BPF took a strange turn. With Reatile’s faction gone, Ookeditse’s camp proceeded with the elections. The voting unfolded under flickering lights and a cloud of uncertainty, a symbolic reflection of the party’s dimming unity. When dawn finally broke, counting started, and later on, Lawrence Ookeditse emerged the victor in what his opponents dismissed as a “mock election”. His camp declared him the new president, whilst Reatile, operating from outside the congress, issued expulsion letters suspending Ookeditse and his allies for defying presidential authority.
The BPF now found itself in a 'paradox of two presidents', two national executive committees, and one party bleeding from both sides. After the election, Ookeditse’s camp convened a follow-up meeting where members voted to revoke Reatile’s membership entirely. Reatile, in turn, held a fiery press conference in Gaborone, insisting that the Serowe elections were 'illegal' and that he remained the legitimate leader of the BPF.
Once allies under Khama’s patriotic banner, the two men now stare at each other across a widening political canyon. The dream of unity that once bound the BPF’s founding members has given way to suspicion, accusations, and the threat of lawsuits.
“Reatile’s behaviour is that of a man who has reached the end of his political career,” Ookeditse scoffed. But Reatile struck back, dismissing the overnight elections as “nothing short of entertainment”. To many observers, the Serowe chaos felt eerily familiar, a replay of the infamous Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) 2017 Bobonong congress, which erupted in violence and birthed the Alliance for Progressives (AP). The BPF, like the BMD before it, was itself a splinter from the once dominant Botswana Democratic Party (BDP).
Now, history threatens to repeat itself, a cycle of division consuming the BDP’s political offshoots. Where the BPF once stood as a symbol of defiance and reform, it now risks becoming another cautionary tale in Botswana’s political annals. For a movement that once promised patriotic renewal and political courage, the BPF now faces a sobering reality, and survival will not be won in rallies or speeches, but in courtrooms. In the past, BPF has been known as a party that frequents the courtroom to solve disputes. The Serowe congress, meant to showcase unity and purpose, may instead be remembered as the night the BPF’s heart broke and when ambition overpowered fraternity. A party once forged in defiance has started to devour itself from within. The courts now loom as the final arbiter of truth and legitimacy. As both camps dig in, the BPF’s immediate future lies not in Serowe’s congress hall but in the cold corridors of the High Court. Legal minds anticipate a bruising battle over the interpretation of the BPF constitution, one that could either restore order or seal the party’s fate.