The day Molepolole giants fell
Maranyane Ngwanaamotho | Wednesday October 29, 2014 17:41
This year’s most unexpected fall was of the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) heavyweights, one a 45-year veteran of the National Assembly and near legendary status in the village, and the other two decades history spent largely in Cabinet.
As Daniel Kwelagobe and Gaotlhaetse Matlhabaphiri faced the end of their parliamentary careers in the Botswana’s most populous village, each threshold in the vote counting process was met with cheers of approval by youth determined to see them out.
Kwelagobe fell to a political novice, Tlamelo Mmatli of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) by a margin of 387 in Molepolole South, while Matlhabaphiri lost by an even wider gap of 2,864 to the UDC’s Mohammed Khan Of the total 26,657 who cast their votes in both constituencies, it appeared a large number were youths eager to end the BDP strongmen’s reign.
A day before the elections, the UDC painted Molepolole orange, yellow and black, with celebratory song and dance as the party members sensed victory. During vote counting on Saturday evening, party youth sang well into the night, keeping their morale up, before Kwelagobe’s loss was announced in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Matlhabaphiri’s demise would be announced a few hours later and was greeted by equally thunderous applause.
“He was MP when my mother was born. He is still MP now and he still wants to be in office? No, he has to go. It’s time for change. It’s time for our grandfather to go and rest,” a UDC youth said of Kwelagobe.
The youth condemned government’s poverty eradication programmes saying they had not benefited from them. They also took umbrage with Matlhabaphiri, saying he had failed them in the years he had enjoyed in the National Assembly.
“It’s time for him to join us in the queue for the programmes,” another young man said of Matlhabaphiri, while sipping Chibuku.
“We are going to sit together and drink soup while we wait for our packages,” another chipped in.
As the sun rose on Sunday morning, the village was a chaotic scene of jubilant, intoxicated youths, still chanting victory slogans and chronicling the demise of the two village stalwarts.