Is AP a BDP revitalization manoeuvre?

Correspondent | Wednesday October 18, 2017 13:37

The reason that Gaolathe (and Wynter Mmolotsi) gave for jumping the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) ship was that he abhorred Khama’s dictatorial actions. Now he has to jump the Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) ship because he hates someone else. This time it is not even clear what the individual did.

In 1990, soon after his release from prison, Nelson Mandela was challenged by an American journalist to explain his friendship and affection for Yasser Arafat, Colonel Gadaffi and Fidel Castro.

Mandela responded, “one of the mistakes which some political analysts make is to think their enemies should be our enemies”.

A veteran of opposition politics, Themba Joina, recently called Gaolathe out on his politics of self-centredness and hate. He asked: “what does Gaolathe mean by truth or integrity. Where is integrity when you can direct so much hatred to one person?”

We may ask further. What is integrity if one can shift the goal posts at will and claim that: “victory does not only mean winning elections?” And, why can Gaolathe not act with integrity and stop aiding and abetting the BDP?” Yes. Why is he throwing a lifeline to the BDP?

Botswana politics are not built on any one person. Gaolathe cannot sway the whole nation against a long held belief that Domkrag must be uprooted. BDP has completely mismanaged our economy. It works only for them (and their children). And in that way the life experiences of many Batswana that are not offspring of BDP top officials are different from Gaolathe’s.

That said someone ought to remind Gaolathe and Mmolotsi that their personal or political enemies are not automatically the enemies of Batswana.

Second, someone needs to tell Gaolathe that he is acting way too entitled. He needs to know that Batswana expect any opposition politician to have a limit to their ambitions. He should not be so cold-hearted as to ask Batswana to postpone their hope for relief from BDP misrule while he builds himself a mickey-mouse party. For that reason his prospects in opposition politics are close to nil.

But then let us not rule out the fact that he might be throwing us off with this whole Alliance for Progressives (AP) business. It is highly probable that he is rebuilding a constituency that he can deliver to the BDP.

A simple Botswana National Front (BNF) activist said something to me this morning that was quite profound. He said...”a ga se gore ka ba ne be tshabile [Ian] Khama baa boela ka gore Khama o a tsamaya mo nakong e e sa hediseng pelo?”

 

Good question. Why now?

At the very least, AP is a manoeuvre to revitalize the BDP. And in order to build his political capital with Mokgweetsi Masisi, Gaolathe has promised to deliver a sizeable constituency. Or so it seems.

Montlenyane Moatlhodi