Smart Alec Domkrag, how it wins elections!

Michael Dingake | Tuesday May 27, 2014 14:53

I was in Peleng, Lobatse and the campaign for the first democratic elections was in full swing. I had registered for the elections and was looking forward to casting a vote for the first time in my life.

My preoccupation in South Africa had been to fight for the franchise for the oppressed native people. Here in the Bechuanaland Protectorate, Bechuana had been promised independence from Mmamosadinyana. Motswana in good standing, I hadn’t only registered to vote but to vote for Comrade Motsamai Mpho’s, Botswana Independence Party (BIP) of which I was a member in good standing!

The first thing, as a conscious politician who didn’t take Batswana for granted, was to study contesting parties’ manifestoes for I didn’t expect parties to rule without Batswana input.

Though already partisan, my major interest was to assess how each party bought into Batswana interests . I don’t remember reading the manifestoes of BPP factions - Motsete’s and Matante’s; BIP was a splinter of BPP and I was already prejudiced against my former party and only interested in the main adversary, the  BDP. BDP manifesto was well crafted, analysed the circumstances of Bechuanaland and Batswana and charted a relatively intelligent approach to the challenges that confronted Batswana and their soon -to-be independent Botswana – name passionately advocated by  Motsamai Mpho.

For a party we disparaged as reactionary, the BDP manifesto flattered. BIP manifesto was disappointing, not for lack of ideological direction but for inability to signpost the direction.

I quarreled with comrade Patrick Tshane, senior BIP official in the South. Uncle Dan Tloome was not spared my cynism for failing to help the fledgling BIP (ANC fraternal party) to draft a more cogent manifesto. Uncle Dan was the ANC representative in Peleng who I knew had capacity to improve the BIP manifesto! Done with excoriating comrades-on-the-spot for shoddy manifesto  I was duty-bound to join the house-to-house campaign team. We knocked on doors to solicit votes; the going wasn’t bad for a while, then we stumbled into one of those homesteads with huts and cottages dotted around the yard with the conspicuous main-house with a well-tended traditional lelwapa.

We introduced ourselves as BIP emissaries. Without much ado, we were referred to the matriarch perching herself on a comfortable seat outside the main-house door.

With utmost courtesy, we approached the matriarch: caps/berets/hats off and greeted politely, careful to observe all cultural etiquette we knew. Finished with the greetings we explained our mission.

After an apparent courteous listening without interruption, she broke down in staccato sobs interspersed with unwelcome mutterings that we were at the wrong place: “Nna ko mong’ame a yang go swela teng, lenna ke ya go swela teng… (Where my king/lord/master falls, there I shall fall)! The message was succinct: ‘Seretse was my man. Ruth-like, where he goes I shall go!”

I wasn’t leader of the House-to-House team, but seeing the leader was dumbfounded, I suggested we try next door! Anecdotes about Seretse Khama’s predominant image on the political scene abounded.

It wasn’t the manifestoes that mattered , rather it was the name Seretse which would  influence the votes. The results subsequently confirmed my hunch! The BIP the least known of the parties faired the worst, one of its council candidates in Mathathane getting ONE vote! BPP-Matante a name a little better known, got three Parliamentary seats. The BDP party flaunting Seretse Khama’s name, took 37 seats to form the first government of an independent Bechuanaland.

Thenceforth the winner of succeeding general elections was Sir Seretse Khama. His name outlived him, the BDP winning succeeding general elections. Oldies simply resisted courtship from any other party. “Seretse o ka mpona (Seretse in his grave might see me (as a traitor),” was the religious argument.

When I came back from my ‘sojourn’ in a foreign country, the justification for voting the BDP, though fading still reflected, voters’ morbid fear of Seretse; the take was that those who voted for the BDP, betrayed Seretse’s trust! Since the early 1980s, while the memory of Seretse faded, his  name was substituted by that of the BDP, which was projected as the party of choice. A variety of popular but misleading, outrageous and dependency-inducing-syndrome slogans were invented:  “Atlhama re go jese(open your mouth, we’ll feed you), tsena mo dijong o tla ngala o tlaa ja eng (come to the feeding trough! You starve if you sulk!), Ipelegeng (be economically independent), when in practice Batswana were taught absolute dependence on government was inculcated. To crown it, Batswana are currently courted with the fatuous slogan: ‘There is still no alternative….’ The slogan poached from Thatcher’s English political hubris, implies that the opposition, lacked experience to govern and it was for the BDP to be elected in perpetuity! Where did the BDP get the experience to govern in 1966?  Isn’t it true that the BDP through its manifestation of misgovernment has practically taught the opposition how ‘not’ to misgovern  but how to govern in the interest of Batswana? How does the BDP reconcile their Thatcherite, monstrous  slogan with the fact that constitutionally, we are a multiparty democracy?

The BDP’ decrepit slogans are meant to project her as the alpha and the omega of Botswana politics. The sloganeering replaces Seretse Khama’s cultural image with the vacuous image of the party; the 2014 BDP manifesto portrays the BDP as standing at a cul de sac! It demeans Batswana marching on the same spot: Culture-encrusted, gullible and lost. The BDP must be disabused of their smart-aleckness!