Khama endorses Masisi for BDP chairpersonship?
Onalenna Kelebeile | Tuesday May 5, 2015 18:00
Members of the BDP convened an impromptu meeting for the party leadership, members of Parliament and civic leaders in Palapye yesterday, in a team building exercise meant to foster cooperation between councillors and MPs.
Several sources at the meeting said that Khama had openly sold Masisi to the various party leadership as the candidate for the tough chairmanship race much to the chagrin of the other present camps. Khama reportedly asked Masisi whether he was contesting the party chairmanship race to which the latter answered in the affirmative.
The same question was reportedly extended to Khama’s younger brother, Tshekedi Khama who answered that he was not in the chairmanship race. The younger Khama had earlier expressed interest in the powerful position and was already in the trenches working the grassroots vote, according to several sources.
Some attendants of the half-day closed door meeting, reportedly left the Palapye community hall after the president’s questions to the two frontrunners.
The supporters of the other hopefuls for the chairpersonship, who were all present, were also angry that they were not engaged by Khama. The blatant exclusion was viewed as the president’s evident endorsement of Masisi.
“We would have been happy if candidates such as Ramadeluka Seretse, Dithapelo Tshotlego, Biggie Butale and Tebelelo Seretse were equally asked to state their positions,” said a party insider who attended the meeting. While Tebelelo Seretse did not attend the Palapye meeting, Butale was in the hall when the critical question was posed. Ramadeluka Seretse was in the vicinity of the building chatting away with party loyals, while Tshotlego was also in the area but not in the hall.
“We think this meeting was just a strategy to give Masisi political mileage over other contestants. This has opened a big door to party factionalism,” said another party insider.
Khama might have taken a leaf from his predecessor, former president Festus Mogae who in 2003 endorsed him (Khama) openly at a BDP women’s elective congress in Selebi-Phikwe. The endorsement was against past immediate vice president, Ponatshego Kedikilwe, as the two tussled for the party chairmanship. Khama would later that year sail through a hotly contested election in Gantsi to the chagrin of the pro-Kedikilwe group, which felt hard done by the endorsement of Khama by Mogae.
Butale said that he witnessed Masisi and Tshekedi being asked if they would contest the chairperson position. He said his supporters were left with a bitter taste as some of the candidates seemed to have been sidelined.
“I just asked them (my supporters) to refrain from petty talk as that could derail our campaign but instead forge ahead with intensive campaigns. Yes, it was neither an innocent question nor an endorsement of some candidates but we should just move forward. I do not know whether it was a strategy meant to afford any candidate political mileage, but to me it is nothing to worry about,” he said.
Earlier during the meeting, reports had circulated that Butale had opted out of the chairmanship. However, the legislator was quick to deny this.
“Politics is just a complex game. My name will be among those in the race for the chairmanship and nothing can stop me,” he stressed.
Butale added that if the ruling party could reform between now and July only then would he withdraw from the race.
“I do not contest because of somebody but on point of principle. My support is overwhelming and I am very confident that I will sail through,” he said.
Other reports emerging from the meeting indicated that despite the apparent presidential support, Masisi was not favoured in the race. Several delegates said that they believed it was too early for him to run for the party chairperson position and ‘he should concentrate on the service delivery that the ruling party promised the nation when it attained power’.
“The reason the party is failing to deliver is that leaders multi-task without giving others a chance to enhance efficiency,” said one delegate. Another chairmanship candidate, Tshotlego said that it was not fair to ask only one candidate to announce his position at the expense of the rest of the candidates. “Political strategies to give some candidates mileage are just too many and this could be one of them. Otherwise the, race is just fine and faction free. I share my message fully with party members but my observation is that our leadership should strive to foster cooperation within the party not political interests,” he said.
Quizzed about the purported endorsement of Masisi by Khama, BDP secretary general, Mpho Balopi indicated that the key question had come only after a party member had asked from the floor that Khama engage Masisi and Tshekedi to explain their positions.
“That is not an endorsement as you put it. The President was rather responding to a question posed by a party operative who wanted to know if indeed the media reports that Masisi was in the race whilst Tshekedi had opted out, were correct. Whoever insinuated that Khama endorsed Masisi was out of order,” he said. Balopi further said that the Palapye meeting had been a success. He indicated that the party planned to hold such meetings twice a year to promote inner party democracy.