Nkawana: BCP’s tactician and marksman, patient to the course
Ryder Gabathuse | Wednesday June 10, 2026 11:42
The septuagenarian Nkawana schooled at Swaneng between 1972 and 1976. However, his involvement in the public service saw him exercising restraint and remaining slothful in politics. The 70-year-old legislator had an illustrious career in public service spanning more than 34 years before he finally retired. At some point, he was the principal of the Wildlife Training College. Nkawana’s character is marked by candour, forthrightness, and a direct communication style. In other words, he is outspoken and would never hold back his opinion. He has chosen to serve his constituents with distinction. “Although I was a public servant, my urge to participate in political activism kept growing. The public service is one of those learning grounds that pushed me further into the political space,” explains Nkawana. When he left the public service, he fully participated in local politics through his political home, the Botswana Congress Party (BCP).
His first parliamentary contest was in Gaborone South in 2009; the second was in Selebi-Phikwe East in 2014; the third was in Selebi-Phikwe East in 2019; and the fourth was in Selebi-Phikwe East in 2024. The last two attempts paid off, as he is now in his second term as a legislator. He is convinced that Selebi-Phikwe, in general, is the base of the BCP, and it has been so for many years. However, he cautions that one has to do the right things, especially now that the party’s advocacy, particularly in Parliament, resonates strongly with the electorate’s expectations. “It has always been a given that the representation provided in Parliament by BCP MPs is above board, and thus the electorates view the BCP as an alternative,” he adds. Maun West legislator and Opposition Whip, Caterpillar Hikuama, says Nkawana is the BCP’s tactician and marksman. Hikuama presents Nkawana as patient and loyal to the BCP course. “As the Opposition Whip for the BCP, I look across our caucus and see many formidable minds.
Yet, few embody the virtues of discipline, grit, and strategic patience quite like Nkawana,” observes the Maun West legislator He adds: “When Nkawana first launched his bid for the Gaborone South parliamentary seat under the BCP banner back in 2014, the numbers simply did not fall his way. In our political landscape, such a setback often triggers a predictable dance-retreat, resignation, or a swift jump to whatever party seems to hold the upper hand”. He explained that Nkawana did something different. “He stayed. He dug in.” “Applying the precise, tactical re-strategising of his military background, he relocated to his home region, taking the fight to Selebi-Phikwe East. It was a bold, high-stakes move that paid off textbook-style.” Hikuama stresses that the electorate recognised his unyielding grit, rewarding him with two consecutive terms in Parliament. According to Hikuama, Nkawana didn’t just win a seat; he transformed a previous setback into an absolute BCP stronghold.
In doing so, he proved that his loyalty to the party was surpassed only by his profound commitment to public service. As the current political landscape shifts and the National Assembly faces increasingly complex national challenges, Nkawana’s presence in the BCP caucus has become critical. He brings a vital asset to the main opposition bench: unshakeable maturity and a quiet, formidable wisdom. In the House, the Opposition Whip says the Selebi-Phikwe East MP operates like a political marksman. While others exhaust their ammunition early in the heat of debate, Nkawana bides his time. He listens, maps out the logical flaws in the opposing side’s arguments, and strikes with devastating accuracy. He does not shout down his opponents; he out-thinks them. His deep expertise in security and conservation has made him an indispensable asset to the national discourse. Because of Nkawana, the ruling party is repeatedly forced to bring substance to the table rather than empty rhetoric. “In Nkawana, the BCP has far more than just a loyal legislator. We have a blueprint for the modern African statesman-disciplined, deeply patriotic, and fundamentally lethal in debate.” Selebi-Phikwe East is a single-member constituency created in 2002, covering the eastern part of the town of Selebi-Phikwe. BCP is a social democratic, centre-left party founded in 1998 after splitting from the Botswana National Front. In 2019, he won Selebi-Phikwe East after BCP joined the UDC coalition. He got 3,903 votes against the BDP’s 2,857 and AP’s 781. His win ended BDP’s hold. In 2024, he was re-elected with 2,842 votes, 41.30%. The margin of victory was 968 votes, 14.07%.
BCP president Dumelang Saleshando describes Nkawana as “reliable and loyal... a patriotic member who has the interest of the people of Selebi-Phikwe at heart”. In Parliament, records show that he has raised issues such as poverty, unemployment, low wages, housing, and farming support. He has specifically flagged delays with the Bonno National Housing Programme and lack of seeds/implements for subsistence farmers. His constituents consider him an advocate for Selebi-Phikwe’s economy following the BCL Mine’s closure. He has strongly pushed for granite rock extraction around the town as an economic avenue. When Saleshando launched Nkawana in February 2024 as the party’s candidate, he noted that BCP was running independently from UDC for the 2024 General Election. Nkawana himself said ahead of the 2024 polls that being the incumbent gave him an advantage and that he believed he had performed well for the constituency. During the State-of-the-Nation Address debate in November 2025, he said, “high levels of poverty, unemployment, low wages, income disparities and other social challenges concerned Batswana. He noted that over a year since UDC took government, “the situation on the ground had not changed” and people in the countryside were becoming impatient. His debate style leans toward constituency advocacy and accountability: pushing government on jobs for Selebi-Phikwe, housing delivery, and farmer support, while also critiquing slow progress under the current UDC government. Hansard buttresses that Nkawana has debated wildlife/conservation mainly through the lens of human-wildlife conflict and compensation, not general biodiversity policy. His focus is on how wildlife impacts livelihoods in farming areas.
In a 2024/2025 Parliament question, Nkawana asked the Minister of Environment and Tourism, Wynter Mmolotsi, for details on the Ngami constituency, namely how many people were attacked by wildlife in the last five years and how many died or were injured.
He also demanded to know how much compensation was paid to farmers from 2021 to 2024/2025 for crops, livestock and property damaged by animals His angle in debate lines up with his broader parliamentary pattern: pushing government on practical support for rural communities While Nkawana focuses chiefly at the constituency level, other MPs from his party, such as Gabatsholwe Disho, who also chairs the wildlife committee, have led national debates on balancing conservation success with human safety, a topic very close to Nkawana’s heart. He hasn’t delivered major speeches on elephant-hunting quotas or CITES like some MPs. His wildlife contributions are constituency-driven: demanding data on attacks, compensation amounts, and concessions for farmers in Ngami/Selebi-Phikwe East. He frames conservation as a livelihood issue. Nkawana was born and raised in Bobonong. As a young man and primary school learner, and later secondary school, his wish was to be a social worker, but life situations altered his dream The legislator has always been a simple party member with no leadership portfolio. His days are hectic, with little rest, but, of course, family commitments are always there. In the 2024 elections, BCP won six of seven council seats in his constituency.
His relationship with all seven councillors is that when Parliament is in recess, he convenes a briefing and debriefing meetings at which stage they plan activities as a collective. “As I said earlier, I was influenced by the Russian and Cuban political teachings, and back in Africa Mwalimu Julius Nyerere topped the list of those who inspired me to join politics.” He is, however, reluctant to state his role models. No one in his family is active in politics. One of Nkawana’s interests is seeing people happy despite challenges they may have.
Like all constituencies in Botswana, Nkawana admits there are countless problems in his constituency, such as a lack of employment and poor government services. “In particular, a case that has transformed the constituency into a land of the poor is the unplanned closure of the BCL mine.” Recently, talk has been abounding that Nkawana might be out of the BCP soon, creating a golden opportunity for Minister for State President, Defence and Security, Moeti Mohwasa. Nkawana has vehemently refuted such reports. His position is that no one has ever approached him, “and the UDC operatives knowing my position after the BCP bolted out of the UDC coalition would not even go there.” To him, it’s not anything that he would even entertain, “as I am home and dry at the BCP and Selebi-Phikwe East.” To him, in Selebi-Phikwe East, the BCP has a stable home, and it will remain so in the years to come. “It’s annoying for the UDC to be bringing rented crowds to Selebi-Phikwe East, to say the least.
We are, however, not worried about what they are doing, as they are only exposing their weaknesses to the constituents.” Nkawana insists that, with their rivals understanding his position, no one would really waste their time approaching him to trade the constituency for any role. Nkawana is a family man, and the family gives him the strength and support to participate in politics. He quickly admits that his efforts to choose a suitable sport from a young age were fruitless. “Ka koo Mokwena ke paletswe (I have literally failed in that respect.)”