Molefhi swimming against the tide
Correspondent | Friday March 3, 2017 15:39
Infrastructure Science and Technology Minister, Molefhi is yet to publicly announce his challenge for Masisi.
But his body language has been telling the story of a man amassing weapons of massive political destruction to fulfill his political appetite.
Molefhi comes across as a go-getter who hardly shies away from getting what he wants no matter how hard the circumstances. But politics is a different ball game altogether, it changes in shape and size.
Molefhi, one of the once media friendly politicians in the country has suddenly changed and adopted a hard stance. He hardly takes calls from journalists.
“It’s very hard to reach him,” Botswana Guardian and Midweek Sun Francistown correspondent Edward Bule spoke frustratingly about Molefhi this week, a development he does not want to easily associate with the Selebi-Phikwe East vocal MP.
It’s in the public domain that the Serowe-born politician is contemplating taking Vice President and BDP chairman, Masisi head on for both party chairman next July and ultimately party and state presidency.
It’s not far-fetched that Molefhi could have teamed up with the BDP secretary general Botsalo Ntuane. It’s not a coincidence that they have adopted a similar media strategy of ignoring media inquiries.
Ntuane has not been talking too much lately also, often times choosing not to even take calls from journalists wanting his comment on BDP pertinent issues.
But, as it seems, it’s game on for Molefhi. Just this week, when he finally took my call after the umpteenth time’s attempt, Molefhi could only say that he was still consulting his people and at the right time, he will say whether he is challenging Masisi or not.
When quizzed about the ‘right time’ he could only say that, “When I have made a decision I will notify you.”
He could not divulge whether he was ready to accept nomination by his supporters or not.
Who is Molefhi? He is a 57-year-old Serowe-born retired civil servant who served as a district commissioner before.
He is viewed as very calm and somehow ‘untainted’ by BDP factional bickering. He is too soft, quiet and generally a nice character and very neat.
Molefhi is a businessman-cum-politician and a founding partner of a popular ABM University, which has campuses at both Gaborone and Francistown and enjoys Government support through sponsorship of deserving students.
There is a general belief that Molefhi is more of an administrator than a real politician who can easily immerse his hands in the political dirt.
His bid for the chairmanship could be a well calculated move likely to put on track his ambitions for the high office in the land. Presently, things do not look good in his constituency and the opposition is advancing menacingly.
In the 2014 general elections, Molefhi escaped with 3,134 votes followed by Botswana Congress Party (BCP’s) Kgoberego Nkawana who had garnered 3,134 votes and thus Molefhi’s thin margin stood at 242 votes.
Dimpho Mashaba of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) and independent candidate Oarabile Tshenyego got 979 and 818 votes, respectively.
To add salt to injury, his political woes were compounded by the recent unexpected and sudden closure of the BCL Mine and clearly he knows too well that he is skating on thin ice.
His bid for the chairmanship is a necessary risk. He needs this post more than anybody else as a launching pad to something bigger and better
Molefhi appears to be a likeable character – humility and modesty endeared him to the leadership and the rank and file. If you like, call him a man of the people who mingles with ordinary folks. He is a clean, untainted politician who through tact and diplomacy has managed to stay clear of the internal conflicts that continue to characterise and rock the BDP.
To that section of democrats, weary and tired of conflicts and yearning for a restoration of peace and tranquillity in the party, Molefhi could be their obvious choice. He clearly fits the bill of a unifying factor and this could work in his favour.
But he must be warned that failure to win the chairmanship could have disastrous consequences for his political career. It is an open secret this contest would be the biggest political gamble of his life and there is bound to be casualties.
A loss could relegate him into the wilderness. If upon ascendancy to power, Masisi acts like a wounded lion and chooses to have a Cabinet composed of allies, that might spell doom for Molefi.
As a businessman, Molefhi’s ABM University chiefly depends on Government to sponsor students.
At a time when local Universities are worried about reduced Government scholarship, which has forced amongst others, Limkokwing University to retrench some of its staff, any further wrong move by the ABM University proprietor could spell doom to the business.
Molefhi knows better that Masisi politically is a ‘replica’ of President Ian Khama. They are simply like-minded and don’t easily forgive and forget.
Politics may not have made Molefhi as some might argue. But, as a career that he has chosen, it has to continue rewarding him rather than hurting him.
The BDP cannot afford any more schisms within its ranks. Faced with what appears to be a formidable opposition under the banner of the UDC, the BDP cannot afford the luxury of engaging in divisive and time consuming ventures.
Bulela Ditswe is one such costly undertaking all BDP diehards who have the interests of their party at heart, must subordinate their personal interests to BDP’s interests.
While fulfilling the principles of democracy, Bulela Ditswe has succeeded in polarising the party and in some instances the system was directly responsible for the humiliating electoral losses the party suffered at the hands of the opposition.
The case in point is the loss of Boikaego- Madiba ward in Palapye which factionalism is credited for handing it over to the BCP on a silver platter.
Valuable political lessons must be drawn here. Those harbouring chairmanship ambitions especially, have a choice to make, to handover chairmanship to Masisi on silver platter and move the party forward as single united entity or to contest against Masisi and run the risk of causing further divisions and face the prospect of handing over power to the opposition on a silver platter.
A local newspaper has previously reported that when Khama faced with a revolt of the BDP parliamentary caucus in late 2014 over who was going to become the Vice President of the Republic, he called all his MPs into a private meeting room and asked each one of them to write down on a piece of paper their choice for Vice President.
“According to sources close to events at the time, the person who scooped most nominations was Molefhi, followed by Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi, then Masisi and lastly Tshekedi Khama,” read the local newspaper.
Khama has endorsed Masisi from a party meeting in Palapye and lately during a Cabinet meeting.
In 2003, after Ponatshego Kedikilwe had failed to defend the party chairmanship at a party elective congress in Gantsi, he got sidelined in both party and Government.
It was only after he had reconciled with Khama that he was appointed to Cabinet and ultimately as Vice President before he retired from politics.