The naked truth about sex and politics in Botswana

| Monday November 1, 2010 00:00

'One time my husband told me he wanted to stand for council elections and I told him if he does, we would have to divorce,' one woman told this reporter in confidence.

When pressed to explain her extreme ultimatum, she went on, giving an ugly picture of what obtains behind the public glare of local politics.

'I was raised by my uncle, who has been a councillor since I was a child. He has a choir and almost every girl in that choir is his girlfriend,' she says.

Sex is used as a tool to assert one's power especially by powerful people in the political realm, corporate and other spheres of power. In politics, women are often at the receiving end of the notoriety of influential party men who use their power to solicit sexual favours from fellow female party colleagues.

The infamous Clinton-Monica Lewinsky affair is one of the many examples depicting the scandals that have rocked the world, where a leader was found engaged in a sexual fling with those under him. Botswana and Africa as a whole has its own examples where leaders use their status to gain access inside the pants of a nubile woman in the reach of their power.

It is a topic that is rarely discussed in political parties. Not in public. However the issue cropped up recently at a workshop organised by Electoral Institute for the Sustainability of Democracy in Africa (EISA) for Botswana political parties in Gaborone. Botswana Congress Party (BCP) councillor Stephen Makhura said it is difficult sometimes to enforce discipline in political organisations when a member complains that a high-ranking party member 'o mo tseela ngwanyana (is frolicking with his girlfriend). These issues affect the party stability,' he said.

Another workshop attendant, Dr Nono Kgafela-Mokoka, deputy secretary general of the Botswana National Front (BNF)observed that where a female activist was disposed of a boyfriend in the party, she might leave the party.She said unlike in other countries in the west where leaders are punished, even through impeachment, 'Botswana leaders do as they wish. Ba kotula hela (They just have sex with them),' she said.

Dr Kgafela-Mokoka said the issue of sexually-related conflict is so rife in politics that during the BNF congress this year held in Mochudi one veteran party member said whilst praying that: 'God, protect us so that we don't take each other's girlfriends, as this will destroy our party. This really shows that issues of ethics and sex are serious,' she said.

Also attending the EISA workshop, University of Botswana politics professor Mpho Molomo concurred with the politicians adding that he once overheard a politician saying 'it's part of politics. Gore ga o le mo kgaolong, o tshwanetse o e thae - that as a politician you have to mark your territory by engaging in sexual relationship with a lot of women in the constituency. They use them as organisers to recruit voters. But this backfires, especially when they (women) clash leaving you alone,' he said. 

Professor Molomo said that there must be a rule of law or code of ethics to inspire political trust. 'Where others will trust  you can't take their girlfriends,' he said.

A high profile political leader, speaking anonymously, says that in some instances young women expect to be proposed to by leaders in a political party.

'Ga lo sa ba phoshe ba a tsamaa - when that does not happen, they leave.  Having sexual relationships in political organisations is seen as a way of consolidating the party,' he said.

BNF activist Rhoda Sekgororoane said at one stage she came across a case where one politician was dating 30 girls in a political party. Choirs, normally formed to mobilise and boost political campaign in a ward or constituency, end up being abused by politicians.

'One time when we were campaigning for a by-election somewhere in Botswana, a councillor had an affair with a lot of girls in a choir. The girls fought bitterly such that one of them even lost an eye,' she said.

She said that a lot of young women in politics have died of HIV/AIDS, especially in 1999 due to their sexual relationships with elderly politicians across the political divide.

Last year in Kasane, 'we were conducting an assertiveness workshop, where we met one elderly woman who accused high profile politicians of using young women in rural areas, especially during party meetings, like congresses, for sexual relief. A re ba a ba hapanna be ba ba latlha - that they go through them and then dump them,' she said.

In Sekgororoane's viewpoint, this problem is located within the socio-economic status of women who find themselves locked in an inescapable cycle of grinding poverty. Politicians have a lot of money as they hold powerful positions of councillor, MP, minister and others so they wield a lot of power to lure the hapless women. In short power, like a magnet attracts them to the sexually charged politicians and the two enter into a trade-off of sorts; the girl, basking in the allure of power whilst the sex-crazed politician feeds his insatiable libido. One council candidate, Sekgororoane revealed, met a girl during a house-to-house campaign and impregnated her.

Five years later when they went around to plead for another vote, an irate woman scornfully told them off. 'She showed us a five-year-old child fathered by the very candidate we were trying to campaign for. Apparently after impregnating the girl, the councillor disappeared. It was a very embarrassing encounter,' she said.

The BNF activist says women have to control themselves to avoid being used as tools to boost the egos of lustful politicians.

In an effort to try to make an impression in the eyes of peers and the society at large, some of these poverty stricken young women succumb to these sexual advances to inflate their social status.

'Some people like to be praised for being in love relationships with councillors, MPs and ministers. They want to show that even though they are at the lowest in the social strata, they can use their female power to attract powerful men. But what use is this when the man can only use you and dump you the next day? Most of the time these men are married and use these girls just to entertain themselves,' she said.

The instances pointed out, paint a reality of abuse of power to feed sexual appetites by the powerful that has become entrenched in our society. But what really is the root cause of this moral decadence? Trying to make sense of this social concern, Dr Paul Margaret in her article Power and Politics - Addiction to Sex and Power says:'Many of the leaders in our society are operating as wounded children, run by their addictions to approval, sex, power and control. Few truly healthy individuals want to put themselves through what a politician has to go through to run for office - the verbal abuse both given and received, the huge amounts of money spent, the integrity sacrificed through the concessions, lies and manipulations offered in order to win'.

For his part, BNF spokesman Moeti Mohwasa says the practice is bad and should be discouraged. Party colleagues should not engage in love affairs in the first place, as it has the potential to create anarchy in the party. Botswana Caucus for Women in Politics (BCWP) president Moggie Mbaakanyi says sexual abuse of women cuts across all social classes, be it politics or the corporate world. Mbaakanyi says that as a female candidate it can be hard to win elections against a male counterpart because men use money and sex as a tool to woo female activists and voters.

'When you lobby other women to vote for you, you will hear murmurs like 'you women don't give what men give us'. We can't compete against this because we can't give sexual favours to fellow women. This is irresponsible behaviour by men who take advantage of poor women. I classify this as violence against women,' she said.

Mbaakanyi has urged for a special fund for women in politics so that they are in a better position to campaign in these circumstances where men use thigh power to gain advantage over the womenfolk.