Motswaledi: personality of the year

| Monday December 15, 2014 17:13

 

No one else has influenced the thinking of our people and given them a renewed hope for the future like this man, or is it his death?  The manner of his untimely death which has led to conspiracy theories has been attributed to Gomolemo Motswaledi’s rise to stardom, even after his passing on.

What is a fact is Gomolemo Motswaledi’s  name and ideology was the ‘triumph card’ for the UDC on their way to garnering a record 17 seats in parliament in the 2014 General elections where giants such as Daniel Kwelagobe, GUS Matlhabaphiri, Botsalo Ntuane, Dummelang Saleshando to name a few, all fell to Gomolemo Motswaledi’s UDC.

In death, Gomolemo seemed to be leading the campaign from the front, much to the dismay of his rivals who complained that the UDC was cashing-in on Motswaledi.

Motswaledi’s untimely death on 30 July, 2014 achieved a rare feat; it gave rise to unprecedented consciousness. Like a seed that goes under the ground and then sprout s to bear many fruits, so has been the story of Gomolemo’s death this year. 

What him and the UDC, his own Party the Botswana Movement  For Democracy (BMD),  once seemed to be slow to achieve, in death he fast tracked the political program and in no time, Motswaledi’s  and the UDCs political ideology was on almost everyone’s lips and hearts.

Btv might not have broadcasted live or done a special program to pay tribute to the political giant, but  Batswana celebrated Motswaledi in a humbling style.

From the days his body lay in state at the UCCSA and the Gaborone City Council, and was later mobbed by multitudes on its way to the stadium, you could see what Gomolemo means to Botswana. In their hearts, he was alive and he is still alive today. Critics of the UDC politics have been murmuring that Gomolemo’s death was hijacked by his Party to win the many constituencies they won.

What is clear though is that Gomolemo will never die in the hearts of defiant Batswana. As he sees events unfolding from the other side of the river, Gomolemo must be singing, “ O death where is your victory, o death where is your sting?”