'Gil' Saleshando speaks

| Friday July 16, 2010 00:00

Mmegi - You have been in politics for decades now, and people know you as one of those old school opposition politicians to whom politics is almost a spiritual engagement. How did you come to the decision of finally walking away from your passion?

Saleshando - In 2005 when we went for our last Congress in Letlhakane, I was elected with the understanding that I would serve one term or two, maximum. Even my colleagues knew that, because I did not make a secret of it. I stood on condition that I would then leave after my first term. I told them and everyone understood that I would not be the president of the party forever. Jaanong re bo re suspenda our last Congress re ipaakanyetsa ditlhopho. That means therefore that I am in my second term, ka gore we did not hold our congress towards the elections.

It was always open that I would also consider my options at the end of the my first term. E le gore fa seemo se letla ke tla bo ke tlogela.   Ke tsaya gore go lekanye. Ke tsene ke na le mafolofolo but I feel that I have given all I could. It is important to leave before you become a burden to the organisation. You come in full of energy, you use that energy to help the organisation, but it is important to always step back and wonder whether you have not shifted into being a liability.

I think this is the right time otherwise I think I might become a burden to the organisation.

Mmegi - Looking back what has been your success? And are there any challenges that you didn't surmount?

Saleshando - The secret to success in any organisation is teamwork. I cannot claim to have had any success on my own. People you work with are very vital. To be a political leader is a challenge. Opposition organisations are characterised by constant debating and even challenging each other. Se se tona ke gore o seka wa raelesega go utlwana le ba bangwe mme o felela o sa utlwane le babangwe ka go tsamaya le bale. You learn this through experience. Kana organisations like ours ke makgotla a boithaopi, jaanong o tshwanetse wa itse gore o itshokele ba bangwe mme ebile o itse gore le bone ba go itshoketse.  I think if I have had any success at all it is that I have had and maintained a great team that I worked with. My central committee was close and I never had any problems with any of them because I did not have a favourite. Unity helped us a lot. Ultimately it is all about teamwork. I think that is the success if you want to call it that. Everything else came from that, I think.

Actually looking back I think leaving the BNF helped us a lot. The experience we went through at the BNF and having to leave that changed us. Re ne ra lemoga gore ga o kake wa aga an alternative government if we are not serious, not focused. We therefore were determined not to go back to the BNF mentality. That experience helped us. It is a good influence and I think it is the major reason why we guard our unity so jealously.

I think as an individual I have also learnt a few things and one of those is to tolerate critics. Ebile o tshwanetse gore o lemoge fa o eteletse batho pele jaana ba bangwe ba ka go kgala, gongwe ba go kgobe ka mafoko. Ba bangwe ba ka nna mafoko a a gaufi le go go tlhapatsa. You have to swallow your pride and bring them back, appreciate them for the contribution they make in shaping your leadership style and your organisation.  O tshwanetse wa mmontsha groe ga o a mo tshwara ka pelo ebile ga o mo ile.

Mmegi - The BCP did very well in the last elections. How did you manage to get such results?

Saleshando - Gantsi batho ba lebile boeteldipele. If you have a programme that is clear and you work on implementing it, your activists and followers are able to have a clear vision.  Re khompita le madi, rona ga re na madi. Mme gona le batho ba ba ka re berekelang ba re thusa. Jaanong re tshwanetse ra ba ngoka ka ditiro.

Go botlhokwa gore le seka la bonwa le omana in public. Politiki e e siameng ya opposition ke gore le bo le omana go sena yo o itseng gore le tle le omane. Then people start to think that is a credible alternative.

Mmegi - Opposition cooperation; this idea has got its own supporters who seem to be quite a number. However, the BCP and the BNF have made attempts at it and failed. Is there something inherently impossible about the two parties working together?

Saleshando - Potso eo e botlhokwa. Kana people ga ba itse gore go tlile jang gore cooperation le BNF e bo e padile. Let us start from the beginning. Kana BNF e re paletse ko ntlheng hela ka gore re ne re sa e tlhaloganye.Koma (BNF former leader the late Dr Kenneth Koma) o ne a ja le Seretse (the former president of Botswana and BDP Seretse Khama).

Mmegi - You mean the two had a common programme to which they were both dedicated?

Saleshando - Koma o ne a na le Seretse mo moonong, mme gone moo batho ga ba go itse. Some within BDP will tell you that Seretse wanted Koma for Vice President. Koma however said that would weaken the BDP. He said 'the best option is I form a party that can oppose BDP'.

This is also very obvious from the events around the past elections. In every election BNF had some sort of crisis.This was a deal with Seretse. This was to give Seretse a chance. Koma only got serious during Masire's tenure. But when Mogae (ex president Festus Mogae) comes in, he goes back to his role.  When Seretse died, Koma wrote a letter to Ian Khama. He gave me this letter. I read it. He said to me, 'Ke a go roma gore o le ise'.Mo lekwalong leo o ne a raya Ian a re a boe ko bosoleng morafe wa gagwe o a sotlega mme a tsene mo dipolotiking. O ne sa leke go mo gogela mo BNF. Jaanong ke mo raya kere, 'If Khama comes to BDP, we will be in trouble. Gape tota nna ga ke itse batho ba'. I refused to send the letter. E le gore ke ganana le molaetsa wa lekwalo.  Secondly fa Mogae a tsamaya, Koma o ne a re bitsa a re re mo thuse go tlhopha his vice. We tell him we already have a candidate. We wanted David Magang for vice, not Ponatshego Kedikilwe. We wanted those two for tactical reasons. We thought if we had those we could defeat them because they were not strong politically.

So we told him to go and tell Mogae that we would give him Magang, provided he supported party funding. Koma goes to Mogae, when he comes back he says 'We have agreed that VP is going to be Ian'. Ra tsidihalelwa ba botlhe. Ke gakologelwa Dabutha a mmotsa gore, 'A o bona gore o re busetsa ko go 1967, batho ba a go tlotla BDP ka leina la ga Khama?' Koma a re 'Ian o itse administration'. At this point I started to have major doubts about Koma and the BNF in that shape.

Mmegi - As early as that?

Saleshando - As early as that. We started growing apart until Palapye happened.

Let me tell you. Do you know that in 1998 I was secretary general? I had travelled this whole country except for Gantsi and I was sure that we would give BDP a serious challenge in the 1999 elections. Koma did things that were difficult to forgive him for. A phatlalatsa BNF ko Palapye. You know we split at around 11am, by lunchtime his letter was already being read on RB news.

When we going to Palapye, I remember that Patrick Balopi and Moutlakgola Ngwako asking me, 'How do you feel that BNF e a go thubegela mo diatleng tsa gago?' They already knew that BNF was going to split! We did not really know that Koma o ja le boora-Khama.

Mmegi - Koma has been gone from the leadership of the BNF for nearly a decade now. What makes it impossible for the BCP and BNF to see eye to eye even under a different leadership?

Saleshando - Go padisitse one person. One person. Go padisitse Rre Otsweletse Moupo. We held a number of meetings during the cooperation talks and Moupo attended only a few of those. Moupo o ne a sia go sia mo gongwe. E tla re re tsena mo meeting re bo re bona go tsena Mma Letshabo (Kathleen Letshabo, then BNF VP) gotwe Moupo ga a kgona go tla.  I suspect that between Moupo and Ian, there was something going on. Moupo and Ian had a deal. In fact, I thought Moupo would have been elected a specially nominated MP if he had contested the elections and lost. But his squabbles with BNF ensured that he could not even be a candidate.

Mmegi - But you said that leadership is teamwork. Weren't there any other people whom you thought were more friendly to the cooperation project

Saleshando - Letshabo was very cooperative. I think the people close to Moupo did not know about the deal but I suspect they had their own suspicions.

Mmegi - You are a veteran of politics. You are now leaving. Do you think that you might become irrelevant in the new politics?

Saleshando - the difference between then and now is that batho ba a chencha. Generation ya gompieno ga e tshwane le ya maloba. Generation ya maloba were hard working people. Let me give you an example; Kavindama (the late Joseph Kavindama - former Okavango MP). When Kavindama went to Parliament people wanted to see this man who used mokoro to win a difficult constituency.  Re ne re bua di-issue tsa batho mo radiong, batho ba go utlwa. Ba utlwa o bua dikgang tsa bone. Gone moo go ne go thusa ka generation ya nako eo. Go chenchile.

Gone jaanong, re lebile motho a le mongwe e leng president mo TV. Jaanong o kare ba bangwe bale, gab a bue, mme tota e le gore ka fa dilo di nsteng ka teng, go batliwa motho a le mongwe, a bo e nna ene a buang hela. E nna ene a batliwang ke babega dikgang. O a itse gore ha o ka hitlhela monnamogolo ko Zwenshambe kana ko Mohembo o bo o mo raya ore 'Hei mapalamente a malatsi a ga a utlwale'.

O ka go raya a re, 'Ga ba tshwane le Dabutha'. BoDabutha (former Gaborone central MP and BCP foundeing member Maitshwarelo Dabutha) le boKavindama were tough guys.

Mmegi - It's different nowadays?

Saleshando - Gompieno ke polotiki ya bo Dumelang (Dumelang Saleshando - Gilson's son, BCP publicity secretary and Gaborone Central MP). O tsaya gore Dumelang o ka robala ko Kavimba? (laughing). Gompieno go ja majita ba boPhakalane bo lona jaana (laughing).

Gone mme generation ya gompieno e educated. If we push them in large numbers into Parliament, they can change things ka gore ba itse ko ba yang teng.

Mmegi - O tlogela Phikwe  jaanong? A o latlha Phikwe jaanong?

Saleshando - Nyaa, already we have one to three young people ba ba supang kgatlhego mo go emeng ba batla nnang much stronger than I could ever be in articulating people's issues and party programmes if they can go to Parliament. But also, ke tiro ya me go grooma someone better than me. It would be a failure for me to make myself somehow indispensable.

Mmegi - Don't you have worried constituents?

Saleshando - Some refuse. But ultimately people accept your contribution and let you go.

Mmegi - Now you are leaving. Your son Dumelang Saleshando is set to take over from you. Are the Saleshandos the Khamas of the BCP?

Saleshando - You know its very unfortunate that the person who will take over happens to be my son. Ga ke bone gore batho ba ba buang jalo ba phoso, gore bare go raya gore re ikitshitse booraKhama ko BCP. If it so happens that the person who becomes the president will be my son it is not a good idea. People in the streets will have suspicions. It would be like gone go na le thulaganyo. Mme gone ka go tlhoka lesego gone ene mme a bo a le se a leng sone mo go ba ba mo phathing.

Mmegi - Were you opposed to his standing?

Saleshando - I called him here ke mo raya kere 'O seka wa ema. Batho ba bantsi ba ba ka emang'. Ke boleletse le executive that that's what I told him, ba re 'ahhh!' ba hakgamala. They called me and told me that he is standing. I told them gore 'that's a non-starter. Ga le kake la tsamaisa phathi jaaka okare ke bongaka jwa Setswana'.

Go lebega gone batho ba sa batle go ema, but ga se party policy go bo go ema ene. We have not made a decision to have Saleshando stand alone.

Mmegi - We have seen the emergence of BMD. How does it affect opposition politics?

Saleshando - BMD e tlaa re thusa hela mo go tona-tona. They are coming at the best time. They come at the time when the voter is almost convinced that the way to oust BDP is through cooperation in the opposition. It is even more important that it is the BMD that is driving the opposition cooperation issue. Before the end of this year you will see us cooperating in Tonota North. We will give them support in all the ways we can.

If you were in Parliament you saw that I welcomed and recognised them to Parliament against the speaker's position who flatly refused to recognise that there were four new MPs in the opposition.

Mmegi - There are those who say this continued attention that the BMD is getting may be detrimental to the progress of the other opposition parties. Does this work against the BCP?

Saleshando - I think it is proper that they are under the spotlight right now. They are new and so it is important for all issues to be explored so people can know who they are and what they intend to do. I do not think it is bad at all.

Mmegi - What do all these developments mean for the BDP?

Saleshando - BDP is still here, mme e tsamaela go hela. Everything has a terminal point. If you take this cellphone and throw it at the sky as far as you can, at some point it will stop and turn back down. The BDP has not devised any new technology to arrest their obvious and inevitable decline. Gape ga e na batho ba ba ka emelanang le opposition. BDP ga e na mapolotiki. E na le batho ba ba ka bong ba le ko merakeng.

Mmegi - You don't think Ian Khama will be able to arrest this problem?

Saleshando - He is the cause of the problem. When he left the BDF he had a major impact on the party but he squandered that goodwill, ka tota ene ga a itse gore polotiki go tewa eng. Ga se lepolotiki selo sa ntlha, ke kgosi hela ya gaMmangwato. Sa gagwe ke go nna a eta fela jaaka maloba re mmone ko Mohembo. O ne a ile ko Mohembo a tswa ko island ya gagwe a tlola noka to find abject poverty mo bathong. A tswa ko island ya gagwe.

Dikgabo tsa gagwe di ja di-apple. A ya ko bathong ba ele gore some of them will die ba ise ba utlwe gore apple e utlwala jang. I am talking about people who have grown up without any access to something as basic as a toilet.

Mmegi - How do you see BCP in the future?

Saleshando - BCP has a bright future. I am saying this because the private press is now starting to be accessible in many regions of this country. You are able to get newspapers in all the major regions of this country. That means the BCP will benefit from that.  Also with BMD in the picture I think we will see a much more credible opposition, that is united and focused.

Mmegi - And you?

Saleshando -  Ke tla bo ke le ko gae. E tla bo e le slow march tota after 2014. Of course, for now its fireworks until 2014. In 2015 ke a go nna ko gae ko Maun. Ke a go nna ko polasing le dikgomo le dipudi le dinku le dipitse. Ke dilo tse ke di ruileng.

Ke a kgatlhega ha ke na le tsone. I will also be active in the NGO sector ko Re Teng. Ke tla thusa ba Reteng mo go tona hela thata ka ke tla bo ke na le nako.