The Same Bathobakae I knew
Correspondent | Friday December 2, 2016 15:36
My response was that I was not aware of anyone who has passed on, but he presses on and tells me that someone had just called his wife to share the news of Cde Same Makgowa ‘Kwankweta’ Bathobakae.
I instantly called her number and just rang unanswered. All I wanted to tell her was that someone was spreading the news that she is no more. While the phone was ringing, I waited in anticipation of that infectious and authoritative laugh I would get after sharing the news. But it never happened. In the meantime more calls were coming in from people wanting to verify the news. I had no answers.
I stayed in suspense for some time until the president, Cde Duma Boko who had found missed calls on his phone called back to confirm the sad news. Cde Dibeela and Cde Tshidi also called to confirm our loss. I now had to call those whose who had requested that I get back to them to confirm the news.
It wasn’t easy. As protocol dictates, I called Cde Saleshando and then the likes of Cde Martin Dingake, who has a notoriety of not answering his phone. Well at least he returns calls. I have always wondered if he does this to save his callers’ airtime or not. May be I should ask him. He called and I conveyed the news. It was past midnight, drowsy as I was, I could sense that that was not what he was expecting to hear. I could hardly sleep as more calls kept coming in. Cde Arafat Khan called to find out what caused the death, but I had no answers.
That was one of the shortest nights of my life. I had once more failed on a promise to my body, to give it a good rest. Eish!!! But how could I when MmaBathobakae is no more?
I wondered to myself, so I am not going to see MmaBathobakae in life again? How can death be so cruel? How can it not allow me to bid farewell to Cde? Well it seems that is how God had arranged it and all that we have to do is respect His will. We just have to thank Him for giving us this present that we will cherish forever. She might be dead but her spirit will live forever and nurture us to another level.
Cde Mmabathobakae was like an elder sister to me. Though she was not a fussy person and did not believe in ageism, I preferred calling her MmaBathobakae. In return she would call me Cde Mohwasa.
Sometimes she would say ‘papa’, to show endearment. That made me feel the care she had for other people. Though I was a colleague in the central committee, she would at times remember that I was this little brother. Probably it was meant to put me in my right place. I accepted it. We were reasonably close. We differed at times, but in a healthy and mature way. Where you have independent thinkers, and work closely, you are bound to differ. The question is how you deal with differing thoughts. We never fought. She was a disciplined member of the party who fully respected the principle of democratic centralism.
To her it was important to defer to leadership. She was a fair, soft, loving, caring, understanding and respectful person.
But there was another side to her. She did not take non-sense. She could be firm and uncompromising if pushed too hard. I will never forget the central committee meetings where the president would ask her to chair. Those who did not follow decorum and protocol would be threatened with being thrown out of meetings. The good thing is that no matter how heated the meeting was, we would after the meeting embrace and even joke about the threats she had made. She was a mother.
Those who did not know her well thought she was not a performer. But Cde MmaBathobakae respected other people’s space in terms of the constitution.
She would always strive for non-interference in the roles and functions of each one of the central committee members. To her, the vice president can only come to live when the president is not there or when assigned. The past experiences of differences between the president and the vice probably also had an influence. She was a listener, and a good one too, though not a push-over.
When she was a councillor, I used to comradely chide her about attending full council meetings and committee meetings religiously. This tendency of hers continued even in parliament. I had argued that when her council or Parliament meetings or sessions clash with party assignments, the latter should take precedence. I have to admit, I had to give up.
That was Cde, Same for you, as those who were not inhibited by the age gap called her. If she believed in something she stuck to it. If the BNF was a person, it could tell the tale of this woman who stuck to it even through the most difficult of times. But it can’t tell the story and this leaves it to us, those who were fortunate to interact with her. Cde MmaBathobakae taught us a lot things like being dependable and loyal.
I have to say I have been too busy lately and have not had time to talk to my comrade since the October 27 when she had attended my daughter’s wedding. She was full of life and her usual self.
The friendly, soft spoken but strong MmaBathobakae I know. A few days before the wedding, she called to assure me that she will be in attendance accompanied by Councillor Lopang. Around the same period she smsed to tell me not to be disturbed by the rumour making rounds that she is about to defect to the BDP. I called to find out where that cynicism was coming from.
“Bare keya Domkrag ka gore Khama asked me to accompany him as an area MP ha a etetse ba ba amilweng ke dipula. Nna ga ke kake ka joina domkrag. Ke mo BNF go fitlhelela ke swa,” she said. The MmaBathobakae I knew would never defect to the BDP. What the BDP stood for ran against the grain of her believes. Her politics were to the left.
In terms of the party theoretical and leftist literature she was not that grounded, but she had a deep grasp of the basics. I doubt if she had read a lot of left leaning literature, but her articulation of the challenges of the hoi-polloi by far surpassed that of many leftist scholars. She could connect with the people and was not an ivory-tower. As it has been repeatedly said, theory is a guide to action but not an end to itself. Lenin says, “practice is higher than (theoretical) knowledge, for it has not only the dignity of universality, but also of immediate actuality.”
The Marxist philosophy of dialectical materialism has two outstanding characteristics. One is its class nature: it openly avows that dialectical materialism is in the service of the proletariat. The other is its practicality: it emphasises the dependence of theory on practice, emphasises that theory is based on practice and in turn serves practice.
The truth of any knowledge or theory is determined not by subjective feelings, but by objective results in social practice. Only social practice can be the criterion of truth. The standpoint of practice is the primary and basic standpoint in the dialectical materialist theory of knowledge. See Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Selected Works, and V. I. Lenin, Materialism and Empirio-Criticism. This should not be seen as an attack on knowledge accumulation, theoretical studies, but on dogmatism.
The BNF policies are premised on left wing politics and the adoption of the National Democratic Struggle as a strategy. This she understood and articulated very well. Cde MmaBathobakae spoke fondly of Cde Maitshwarelo Dabutha and Paul Rantao.
It is without doubt their ability to connect with the masses and their ability to electrify political rallies that influenced her politics. But she spoke more about Cde Dabutha who I believe had a much more profound impact on her. Hers and Dabutha’s politics were pro poor and pro workers and were not laced with any reference to Marxist scholars. The only reference made was to the situation on the ground. The one the toiling masses of our people interacted with daily.
I started interacting closely with Cde MmaBathobakae after I was elected to the central committee in 2005 at the Ledumang Congress. My new responsibilities meant that my activism was now thrust to the national stage. She was active in Tlokweng and together with other comrades ensured that Rre Olebile Gaborone became the BNF MP in the 2004 General Elections.
Rre Gaborone spoke highly of her and may be this rubbed on to me. In 2006 she became the Secretary General of the Women’s League under Cde Gagolepe Nthebolan who was the president. When the schisms that shook the party erupted and led to the 2007 Molepolole Special Congress, she was fully behind the then president Cde Otsweletse Moupo. After the Mochudi Congress, the central committee recommended to the president that she nominate her to become an additional member of the central committee.
The lobby list she had supported had just been vanquished at the 2010 Mochudi Congress. Only two or three had survived.
This was a sign of magnanimity on the part of the triumphant comrades. Although this is debatable, it helped blur the divisions that had existed in the build-up to the congress.
Within a space of three years she moved from being an additional member of the central committee to deputy secretary general and ultimately the vice president. It was not easy convincing her to occupy these positions. Circumstances had connived to push her some rungs of the political ladder. It seems she was not ready but she delivered on the expectations of some of us. In politics, no matter how hard you try you will always have those who discount your achievements. MmaBathobakae was one of the best vice-presidents the party has ever had. She knew when her moves mattered and ensured that there is stability in the party.
Rre Olebile Gaborone who I believe also played a part in politically mentoring Cde MmaBathobakae, left the BNF around this period. Eyes were now focused on her to take over. In the 2014 general elections she became the MP for Tlokweng until she was stolen away from us by death. In the recently held Francistown Congress she did not seek re- election because she said she wanted to focus on her constituency. True to what she said, she has departed this world as a member in full standing of the BNF and by extension, the UDC. Said Julius Caesar, “cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once”. Rest in peace comrade. The struggle continues.
*Moeti Caesar Mohwasa is the BNF Secretary General