BNF unveils Koma�s tombstone
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Wednesday November 18, 2015 15:38
Koma was born in 1923 and formed the BNF in 1965, in the process becoming one of the pioneers of Botswana’s opposition politics.
The BNF was launched in 1966, a year after its formation.
Yesterday, the party’s spokesperson, Moeti Mohwasa, said the BNF had lined up activities to take place in Mahalapye around the tombstone unveiling.
“The unveiling will be done on Saturday in Mahalapye. We will then hold a motorcade which will be attended by all opposition party leaders,” he said.
Speakers expected at the rally include Botswana Congress Party president, Dumelang Saleshando, Botswana People’s Party president, Motlatsi Molapise and Botswana Movement for Democracy president, Ndaba Gaolathe.
The night before, on Friday November 27, the party is also scheduled to hold a fundraising dinner for the 50th anniversary celebrations.
Mohwasa said the unveiling of Koma’s tombstone was part of the BNF’s planned anniversary celebrations, which have been going on around the country since early in the year. He said party leaders would also visit the graves of other BNF founders.
Having tried but failed many times to take his firebrand to Parliament, Koma finally made it in 1984 in a by-election, following the infamous Tshiamo ballot box saga. At the general elections he had narrowly lost Gaborone South to then vice president Peter Mmusi, but when it was discovered that the Botswana Democratic Party had cheated when the ballot box for Tshiamo polling station was discovered at the Office of the President, a by-election was called, and Koma sailed through.
With an unprecedented high number of 13 opposition members in Parliament, Koma and his BNF colleagues seemed to be riding the crest of success, but there were undercurrents. The boardroom power battle was soon in the public domain, and the party underwent one of its most painful break-ups in history. In 1998, Koma was forced to dissolve the trouble-torn BNF central committee after a period of infighting. Following a court battle with a section of the party’s dissidents over the control of the party, Koma emerged victorious while his rivals, led by Michael Dingake, went on to form the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) in what came to be known as the Palapye debacle.
Koma retired from active politics in 2004 and went on to become a senior adviser of the National Democratic Front (NDF), another offshoot of the BNF, which later joined the BCP. By the time he passed on, Koma was in effect a BCP member, something that never settled well with his hardcore BNF followers, and the BCP did not seem to want to take away that right of ‘ownership’ from their parent party.
Koma is credited with drafting most of the BNF’s manifestoes and doctrines, including Pamphlet Number 1, which for the past two decades has been treated as the party’s mini bible.