Traditional doctors see a BDP victory #Elections2014
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Monday October 20, 2014 17:02
While two traditional doctors have predicted that the Botswana Congress Party(BCP) will come second, the third doctor in Sese, Jwaneng, sees the Umbrella For Democratic Change(UDC) coming second and BDP winning with a very small and controversial margin.
Interestingly two traditionaldoctors – in Gaborone and Kumakwane have predicted a peaceful process but also say the Botswana Congress Party(BCP), which they predict to finish 2nd, is going to cry foul and see Dumelang Saleshando as very hurting. The two witchdoctors foresee peace simmering at the end.
Modisaotsile Thapelo, also known as Nkepe, a traditional doctor and fully registered member of Dingaka Association from Kumakwane village in the Kweneng District says his bones say the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) will be second after the BDP and the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) will come third in parliament.
Another traditional doctor, Mojaki Lemasi from Old Naledi in Gaborone says his “basimane ba bopedi” sticks tells him that the BDP will emerge victorious while the BCP will lead the opposition.
Both traditional doctors say the opposition will be much stronger than in the 2009 poll as they will both increase the number of members of parliament.
Meanwhile a traditional doctor from Sese in the Southren District known as Rramoemedi sees the BDP winning with a slim margin, and the UDC coming second. He was being consulted by photo journalist Kabo Mpaetona but the photo-journalist was not carrying any images of the three Presidential candidates, instead the traditional doctor made Mpaetona to hold the bones in his hands and breath into the bones before they could tell who among the three will triumph.
Lemasi from Old Naledi
Lemasi also known as Ra Kagiso is a very busy man. The Monitor team arrived just after 11:00am and was ninth on the queue. We found eight old women waiting to be consulted. It was pretty awkward sitting on the queue.
Lemasi takes an average of 20 minutes with every client and it therefore turned out to be a long four-hours wait before consultation. But it was not painstaking wait as the conversations with fellow clients revealed very interesting revelations that added to the credit for Lemasi.
An 80year old woman told us that she has stopped taking her ARV medication after her first visit to Lemasi. “It has been two months since I quit my ARV medication. This man really helped me. The modern medicine doctors said I had AIDS but I am well now. But I always doubted where can an old woman like me contract AIDS,” she said. She however hastily added that it was not Lemasi who ordered her to stop the ARV medication.
The procedure for Lamasi’s consultation process was that the next person to get inside the small room would be given a cow dung to mix with water before they were allowed inside. The medicine man, dressed in a red church cloak with a white cross and a matching red headgear kept joking with his clients in between clients consulations.
Interestingly he was also wearing a sangoma cloth on his waist. All the clients that emerged from the small room came out sneezing. One woman sneezed for over an hour causing rather uneasy laughter from the people on the queue.
When we got our turn, we were not asked to mix cow dung, which was really a relief on our part, but we were asked to take off our shoes as we entered the small dark room. Inside the room, Lemasi was seated on the bed and he waved us the chairs facing him. There were lit candles, many small tin containers and some unique scent.
After presenting our request we gave him three newspaper cutouts of UDC President Duma Boko, BCP’s Dumelang Saleshando and BDP’s Ian Khama. Mojaki said he uses some sticks that are called “Basimane ba bobedi”. The sticks are connected together and he started using them to point to the three presidential hopefuls on the floor while saying, “Ee, re bata go itse gore go wina mang” (Yes we would like to know who wins). He explained that his Basimne ba Bobedi would only stop at the picture of the leader who will emerge victorious. The sticks swayed left to right for a while until they stopped at Khama’s picture.
“Khama will win but his party will not perform well,” he said. “Eish, some people are angry with the ruling government. The party of a man in the middle [Saleshando] will become the second. I can see that he will also complain against some irregularities during elections, but there won’t be any violence,” said Lemasi.
He asked us to give out money to thank ‘Basimane ba bobedi’ and we threw down P30 for the consultation.
Nkepe from Kumakwane
Modisaotsile Thapelo also known as Nkepe is not as busy as Lemasi because we did not find any clients at his yard in Kumakwane. We were told to wait for him because he was away at his cattle post when we arrived. After his arrival we went inside his small consultation room, which had no door and had similar scent as Lemasi’s small house at Old Naledi. Nkepe uses traditional bones that are kept in small sack made from an animal skin.
Nkepe was happy to hear about our request, he told us that he once revealed the whereabouts of one missing person in Gabane. He spoke about money before he started throwing down bones. Each president would be P50, he told us. He explained that he has to separately ask the bones on the chances of each presidential candidate.
He started with UDC’s Boko and stated that he won’t be president. “Ga ke bate gogo lobela, ona le palonyana mme ga a kake a wina. Ga a kake a bona bo tautona. O ta tsena ka palonyana,” he said.
Next he threw the bones for Khama and confidently stated, “Monna yoo o tsere dithopho yoo. Yoo o montle yoo.” At the end he asked the bones on Saleshando’s chances and said he is a worried man but he has more numbers. “Motho yoo [Saleshando] wa go nna ha morago ga ga yoo [Khama], he said.
Nkepe said his bones shows that the opposition will win all the Gaborone constituencies while the BDP will get more votes in the rural areas. He also said there would not be any violence after the elections.
Click here to watch Nkepe is consultation video
Francis Ngombe
In 1998 the Zambian doctor and fortune teller, Francis Ngombe predicted that the BDP will only rule for 15 years. According to his predictions the BDP will lose elections this Friday.
Ngombe had previously predicted that Uganda’s former President, Milton Obote, would fall. The prediction was on point as the central African state president was overthrown by the military.
Ngombe had also in 1998 predicted that Botswana would have a Vice President who would overshadow his president. It was also a correct prediction as Khama grew to overshadow Mogae. The Botswana Guardian newspaper even carried a front page story during Mogae’s presidency saying “The shrinking President” with reference to the domineering effect of the VP.
But according to the latest prophecies it appears that Ngombe was wrong because at the end of 15years that he spoke about, the BDP will form government this Saturday accoding to Nkepe and Lemasi.