The winter session of Parliament: Drawing parallels between Tsogwane, Saleshando

Ryder Gabathuse | Friday September 25, 2020 16:42

 

The winter session of Parliament: Drawing parallels between Tsogwane, Saleshando

FRANCISTOWN: With Parliamentary Live debates literally taking winter session of parliament to the masses, politicians were never going to disappoint, as they knew all eyes were on them.

But, the session diametrically belonged to the two politicians, who by virtue of their positions in the respective parties carried hopes for their parties. The 60-year-old Tsogwane is the face of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) as the LoH, whilst the 49-year-old Saleshando carried hope for the opposition coalition trio of parties known as the UDC. The three parties in a union include Botswana National Front (BNF), Botswana Congress Party (BCP) and the Botswana Peoples Party (BPP).

Botswana’s National Assembly has 57 elected legislators and six Specially Elected MPs. Of these, the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) has 37 elected MPs and Six Specially Elected. UDC now has 16 MPs, Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) has three and Alliance for Progressives has one.

Tsogwane, who is normally, goes by the moniker ‘Slumbisto’ was the voice that incessantly stood on point of procedure and point of clarification. By virtue of his role in the August House, the Speaker granted him more opportunities to fine-tune his team’s debates especially when he feared the opposition bloc was running away with the day.

Slumbisto would stand and tear the voices of the opposition apart to the chagrin of his youthful opposite number, ‘Lord Dums’ as Saleshando is popularly known to hordes of his supporters, and of course his equally energetic and informed team would rise to dismiss the ruling party legislators.

Lord Dums continued to receive accolades as a good orator and shrewd debater. To legions of his followers, the youthful politician is an indefatigable fighter who rarely gives up a political fighter.

But, in the winter session, he met his match made in heaven in Slumbisto himself

In Parliament, the BDP wisdom was to pull its resources together, especially numerical strength and quell any possible pressure from a group of mostly smart opposition legislators.

The BDP tactics hovered around punching holes in the opposition debate and drowning their united voice with the ruling party numbers.

Whilst Parliament was debating possible corruption that Saleshando claimed could have happened in procurement of COVID-19 supplies of pertinent goods where the contentious issue was that President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s sister had unduly benefitted from the hefty tender, Tsogwane towed his party line.

Tsgogwane challenged Saleshando to go and make similar allegations outside the House to avoid hiding behind Parliamentary privileges.

Saleshando had requested for a week to solidify the evidence that he had claimed he had on a matter relating to a disputed tender allegedly awarded to the sister of President Masisi.

Saleshando charged to the Speaker of the House, Phandu Skelemani: “ You allowed the VP Tsogwane to just stand without seeking the requisite procedure.

Now, there he is even making a totally unrelated request. Since when did a Parliamentarian suggest to a fellow MP to go and raise allegations outside the House. Where do you get such a wish? It’s un-parliamentary.”

Saleshando reminded Tsogwane as the Leader of the House, to confine himself to the business of the House.

It came a point in one of the debates of the House when Tsogwane’s tongue slipped when he intended to debate on the raging Gender protocols and he mistakenly said something completely unrelated: Peer Review Mechanism.

Saleshando instead of simply considering Tsogawne’s statement as an ordinary mistake he turned the LoH into a laughing stock: “ You had a plan of misleading this House…I reiterate our plea that you withdraw/erase the words you had said from the Hansard so that you aren’t viewed in bad light.”

Tsogwane couldn’t just accept his blunder without sending Parliament from his side of the aisle in incessant laugher.

His parting shot to Saleshando right under the watchful eyes of the Speaker was, “ I am prepared to withdraw and erase the statement from the Hansard. But, I am not going to go to court after all.”

Going to court here, Slumbisto referred to the matter in which Lord Dums did not take kindly to a decision by the Speaker Skelemani suspending him from the House for a week after the BDP majority had used their numbers to throw the Leader of Opposition out of the House.

The Leader of Opposition in Parliament got a nod of the High Court that the decision of the Speaker to throw him out was unfair and without merit. He was reinstated.

Now this one. Slumbisto became a laughing stock from the opposition bloc for inadvertently addressing Saleshando as the Leader of the House, which is his (Tsogwane’s) title instead of the Leader of Opposition.

As the House broke into another bout of laughter, Tsogwane’s defence was that, Saleshando had described the UDC as a government in waiting, to which he said the UDC was going to wait forever.

In his view, University of Botswana (UB) senior lecturer in politics, Dr. Kebapetse Lotshwao is impressed by the performances of both sides of the aisle.

He acknowledges that Tsogwane and Saleshando are part of a small group of well performing and efficient members of the current Parliament.

The impressed UB academic says, the duo clearly stipulated and defended policies of their parties, and also represented the interests of their constituencies.

The only limitation, however, he said is that they can be too partisan even when unnecessary.“ Sometime it is important to prioritise concerns of the ordinary citizen over partisanship, so that good proposals/policies are not just down on partisan considerations,” noted Lotshwao.

Since 2014, the political mood in the country somehow heightened, possibly because of some of the problems that afflict the country and its citizens. Thus, the next election is likely to be more competitive than the last one.

In this way, Lotshwao says the campaign for the next general election is already underway, and the ruling party and the opposition bloc are out to outclass one another. The tension between the VP and the LoO can be understood in this context. 

The Leader of the House leads the government business in Parliament. In other words, the person is the leading representative of the Executive branch within Parliament. As such, his/her responsibility is to ensure that government policies and proposal successfully pass through.

On the other hand, the Leader of Opposition is leader of the official opposition in Parliament. In many parliamentary democracies, they are also alternative heads of Executive, ready to replace the incumbent in the event of collapse of current government, or electoral loss. 

“For now, it is early to tell who is more effective than the other between the LoH and LoO, safe to say they are both doing well in their positions,” says Lotshwao.

Several factors may have contributed to improved debates in Parliament. Generally, majority of the current MPs are enlightened people with many years of experience in various fields.

In addition, because parliamentary debates are now televised, every MP is trying to do their best, as they are aware that the electorate is watching, and ready to reward or punish in the next election.

Another UB lecturer in politics and administrative studies, Adam Mfundisi rated the duo (LoH and LoO) according to five criteria, namely, public communication, organisational capacity, political skill, cognitive style, and emotional intelligence.

Mfundisi is adamant that Saleshando and Tsogwane are incomparable as the former is a public communicator of repute and the latter is a docile communicator.

The eloquence of the Leader of the Opposition, he says, is beyond reproach.

Vice President Tsogwane, according to the UB lecturer, sometimes speaks without facts or deliberately falsifies issues or events. 

• Organisational capacity: The Leader of the Opposition Saleshando has the ability and capacity to forge teamwork and effective institutional arrangements whereas the Vice President is deficient on the same.
• On the political landscape: Saleshando has immense political skill in comparison with the Vice President.

The LOO uses the power, if any, of the office to assert, build and maintain public support as well as building bridges among fellow legislators. He is a skilled, and resilient political operator amidst a hostile BDP MPS in Parliament.

The Leader of the House, on the other end, is politically incompetent as he is not able to cultivate a culture of cooperation among legislators across the aisle.

• Cognitive style: The two vary widely in their cognitive styles.

The LOO fine - grained cognitive qualities puts him far above the LOH one. The LOH is susceptible to false information as he is not able to think strategically in pursuance of public policy.

The LOO possesses formidable ability to absorb and process information for reasoned analysis. On the contrary, the LOH has political impulses that lead him to make decisions that are devoid of rationality.

• Emotional intelligence: The LOO is emotional intelligent judging him by his measured responses to hostile attacks by the BDP MPS in Parliament. The LOH is subject to mood swings of proportions. His anger to and suspiciousness of others is worrisome.  In the just ended winter session of Parliament, Mfundisi observed that the BDP resorted to numerical strengths to deny qualitative contributions from the opposition MPS. The quality of motions, questions, and ideas presented by the opposition, he notes, were far superior to the BDP quantitative lot.

“When the BDP MPs were cornered, they demanded a vote be taken to derail or dismiss quality motions presented by a highly spirited opposition led by Saleshando. On the whole, Mfundisi is convinced that the BDP MPs displayed, “narcissistic behaviour bordering on thinking entitlement, unrealistic superior view of themselves, overconfidence, and little shame or guilt on how they have turned Parliament into a circus.”