Wynter Mmolotsi: the grandson of politics

Ryder Gabathuse | Friday March 21, 2014 13:21

 

“Nothing in particular really ignited my interest in politics, save to say that I grew up exposed to politics,” the BMD Secretary General told Mmegi in an interview this week.

From his primary school days, his grandfather, the late Solomon Madibeng Mmolotsi used to assign the young Wynter to mount the public address system on his motor vehicle before starting on a political journey.

His grandfather was a ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) councillor for 37 years at a ward previously known as Maipaafela, now Botsalano ward.

Mmolotsi defines politics as a way of his life as he grew up admiring the way his grandfather went about his political business.

It was particularly his philanthropic approach to politics that set the senior Mmolotsi apart from the rest of the politicians he had ever known. “My grandfather worked with the people and served them with diligence,” he reminisced about his early political life with the old man he grew up emulating. The old man, described as a people’s person, served the people without expecting any undue favours from them.

He would lift a dead microphone and mimic his grandfather when addressing a political rally or a Kgotla meeting. He knew that one day he would own several microphones to share with political colleagues.

“I was exposed to the way the old man served the people. He opted to do his political business at micro level and I have opted to go about my political business at macro level.”

Quizzed about his choice of party, Mmolotsi’s response was that since he was exposed to just one party, he was not expected to look for anything else,  “other than that which I grew up exposed to.” He noticed that he was destined to achieve greater things politically because from a tender age, leadership skills had always manifested in different ways.

In the early 1980’s whilst at primary school, he was a class monitor for all the classes at his school despite that he was the tinniest amongst his peers. At secondary school, he was a prefect all the way. “I was one of the tinniest during our school days yet people were able to pick my leadership qualities,” he said.

Towards the end of his first year at Swaziland University where he did his tertiary education, he was elected president of the Botswana students union. There were people senior to him by age and length of stay at the university but despite his pint-sized physique and the fact that he was relatively a newcomer, he was entrusted with the leadership of Botswana students.

When Mmolotsi became a teacher and later a publisher at Heinemann, it was just a halfway station to his political dream.

When he was a teacher at Marang Community Junior Secondary School in Gaborone, already Mmolotsi was politically active, contrary to the conditions of employment as a public servant. “I got actively involved in parliamentary campaigns for Assistant Minister Keletso Rakhudu in Gaborone North and Boyce Sebetlela in Palapye”. In 2003, aged 25 years, Mmolotsi tried his luck in BDP Francistown South parliamentary primaries and lost to Khumongwana Maoto but he did not look back.. When he won the BDP ticket in 2008 after ousting the then incumbent MP Maoto, his dream of pursuing politics, of serving was rekindled. Since he was elected to Parliament, Mmolotsi is confident that his business in Parliament has been the interests of the people.

“I have a lot of deliverables that I can prove to the people within the period of my term in office,” he declared confidently.

He was elected to the office of an MP fully aware that there were truant MPs who disappeared after elections.  “From the day I was elected to parliament, I ensured that consistently I am with the people even when parliament was in session,” he noted and added that when parliament is in recess, he resumes work at his office going through the issues of the constituents. “Look, a lot of people were dismissed from work unfairly and as an MP, I intervened and a lot of them were reinstated.”

At some stage, Mmolotsi successfully battled for the reinstatement of 12 employees of a local company after they were all dismissed from work for flimsy reasons.

He bemoans a reality that his constituency is one of those with a high number of people living below the poverty datum line.

Upon noticing that his constituents were struggling to bury their loved ones, he became the first MP to empower his constituents with a funeral scheme administered by the Funeral Services Group (FSG). The scheme takes total responsibility of funerals in the area.

“Now, the constituents are no longer desperate when they have to bury their loved ones. It was actually my target that before 2014 general elections, I should have delivered this one.”

To him politics is not only about soliciting for votes from the people but ensuring that services are delivered to them.

He is proud that during his tenure as an MP he was able to raise a motion that talked openly about the problems bedeviling members of the Botswana Defence Force (BDF), whom he says do not have a platform to articulate their concerns. His mission was simply for the nation to know that the police and the army had challenges. He associates himself with a decision by government to allow students that have failed at tertiary level to repeat or re-sit their examinations. Generally, Mmolotsi is a rubble-rouser who knows no boundaries as he simply calls a spade a spade even when it hurts most to speak the truth.

“What I know and what I have been taught is that the truth may hurt but it has to be told no matter what,” he pointed out.

If there is anything that has to be told, Mmolotsi feels that it has to be told the way it is so that people can understand the way things are. In his nature, the 40 year-old MP does not believe in euphemisms; he calls a spade a spade.

“In life, I don’t fear any person but I respect people. The only one I fear is God,” he declared. “Regardless of where a person fits on the social strata, I will tell that person the truth.”

Telling it like it is, is what he will be doing for the rest of his life as it defines his character. When some of the pioneers of BMD, a breakaway party from the ruling BDP, returned to the ruling party, Mmolotsi was one of those who remained stuck with the BMD.

He explained: “I believe there is a way of how people consider things. But to me that move back to the BDP alone defines how they understand political leadership.  I feel they (returnees to the BDP) advocate to the notion that politicians are not an animal to trust at all.”

He reckons that if he had returned to the BDP he would be “taking the constituents for granted.” At 41 years next September, Mmolotsi feels that he still has a lot of energy to serve the constituents diligently.

“Once I have aged, it’s not going to be easy for me to apply myself effectively. I think it’s age which distinguishes me from other aspirants,” he observed, noting that to do justice to the position of an MP, one has to be energetic. He feels that the same conditions that prevailed in 2010 at the BDP are still prevailing today. “Hear me right, there is nothing that can cause me to return to the BDP as I don’t make decisions in a hurry.”

He insists that in politics, “there is no better role model than yourself. If you want to believe in another person, you will be disappointed.”