Merafhe, the undiplomatic diplomat Nasha knew
Lekopanye Mooketsi | Thursday January 8, 2015 12:58
Merafhe was quite difficult to shake once he had taken a stand on something.
Perhaps the best description of Merafhe comes from the former Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr Margaret Nasha. She gives a vivid description of the Merafhe that she knows in her memoirs, Madam Speaker Sir. She recalls one incident in the early 1990s when she was still Botswana’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (UK). During that time, former President Sir Ketumile Masire had just been knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. Merafhe who was by then the powerful Minister of Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, together with a delegation of government officials accompanied Masire to UK to be bestowed with the honour.
As it is required of protocol, a specific dress code had been prescribed for the ceremony. For the banquet in honour of President Masire’s visit, the Lord Mayor had prescribed long evening gowns for women and strictly black bow ties for men. According to Nasha, that meant a black suit, a black bow tie and pure white tuxedo shirts, as opposed to just any odd white shirt.
“Although we had sent all these minute details and other relevant information back home to enable the delegation to come prepared, nobody except the President cared to take note.
He came with his whole attire, and I was pleased that I didn’t have to convince the most important person in the delegation to wear the proper attire. Everybody else brought their usual lounge suits, some even with red neckties and a whole array of unsuitable items of clothing for the whole various occasions,” said Nasha.
“When the time came for us to talk about the prescribed dress codes for the various occasions, all hell broke loose,” writes Nasha.
An irate Merafhe protested: “I am not going to be dictated to by the host on what to wear and what not to wear. We don’t do that to them when they come to Botswana”.
Nasha said she expected Merafhe to help her out of the situation but she was wrong. “In fact, he led the pack in telling my officials and me that he was going to wear his dark designer lounge suite and a black necktie, full stop. No amount of persuasion was going to work. I never thought that talking about dress codes would upset members of the delegation so much. President Masire quickly excused himself on the pretext that he needed to go and get some rest. I think he simply did not want to be part of the fiasco. After all, he had conformed, by bringing the requisite attire,” Nasha narrates in the book that many feel has rubbed the authorities the wrong way.
Nasha said she informed the minister and other delegates that the High Commission had arranged with a well known store on Oxford Street, to hire the correct attire for them. The High Commission was also going to foot the bill.
“Knowing the carefree nature of our people, we had anticipated that they would not pay much attention to the details we had sent them about the dress code, and made the contingency plan. But we never anticipated uproar would ensue when we told them that the prescribed dress codes had to be observed. This lot, especially the minister were on the war path,” she said.
With Merafhe and others refusing to listen Nasha said she had to take a stand.
“As Head of Mission, I was not going to allow my Mission and my President to be embarrassed, by having his entourage appear at such formal and glamorous occasions, looking like lost souls going to attend some kind of debating society gathering or something.”
Finally under pressure, officials including Merafhe went to the store to hire the prescribed attire.
“The evening of the banquet came, and everybody was appropriately dressed. They looked absolutely to die for in those immaculate suits, and not a single one of them raised the issue of the morning fiasco.
We arrived at the banquet hall in hired limousines, and everybody was flabbergasted. Surprise would be an understatement, as they realisation that they would have been the odd ones out hit them,” she mentioned.
Another time when Nasha was to experience the General in his element was when they were in Lesotho. This was also in the early 90s when the tiny troubled Mountain Kingdom was undergoing political instability. By then Nasha was the deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
She together with Merafhe and Dr Gaositwe Chiepe were part of the peace negotiators who had been seconded to that country. She recalled that at one time Merafhe turned bellicose as the Lesotho army officials were not willing to compromise.
She said at that juncture Merafhe charged: “Look here guys. If it is war you want, it is war you will get. I am now talking to you as a soldier. If you think you’re secure on that mountain, you are fooling yourselves. We will bomb you out of there, and we shall not stop the bombing until the mountain is flattened out. You think these are the days of Moshoeshoe old.”
Nasha said this seemed to have worked some magic because the soldiers started to become flexible.
There was also a time when Nasha was the Speaker of the National Assembly and Merafhe was the Leader of House. This was at a meeting of the selection committee for parliamentary committees. It so happened that the draft from the selection committee proposed that the committees should have an equal number of members from both the ruling and opposition parties.
This did not go well with Merafhe who seemed to have a total disregard for the opposition. “Even before the first minute was over, Lt General Mompati Merafhe who, as Vice President was also Leader of the House, raised hell! He was totally opposed to the proposed distribution of members amongst the different committees. He saw red and read complete mischief on my part. He kept saying in Setswana, “Mmaetsho, kana golo fa re a busa. Ga re mo pusong ya motlhakanelo! Ga ke tlhaloganye gore ke eng o ka lekanya dipalo tsa rona le tsa baganetsi”.
Nasha said the look on Merafhe’s face told the whole story. “He was extremely unhappy with the proposals and I knew we were destined for a long discussion. Lt. General Mompati Merafhe could be very undiplomatic sometimes, and I thought this was one of those occasions where diplomacy was required,” said the former Speaker.