Of political chameleons and acrobats

| Wednesday April 18, 2012 00:00

Not too long ago, it was BNF youth leader Kagiso Ntime who became a political chameleon by joining the ruling party that he has been so adept at vilifying.  This lot behaves as if the rest of the people are unthinking fools with a chronic affliction of amnesia.  They have no shame in declaring from the rooftops that the sun rises from the North after loudly claiming for years that sunrise occurs from the East.  They would say black is white today and then shift and proclaim that black is green without pausing for breath.  They are a serious blot on our politics.  It was on April 3, 2012 that we reported Mabiletsa denying reports that he was re-defecting to the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) from the Botswana National Front (BNF).  He dismissed the reports as the work of his detractors in the BNF.  Fast forward to April 13, 2012 and lo and behold, Mabiletsa decamps to the BCP.  So what happened in the 10 days in between?  The supposed detractors in the BNF seem to know Mabiletsa better than Mabiletsa knows himself.  They could read his move to BCP even before he contemplated it.  Next time he needs to make a major political decision, Mabiletsa should consult closely with his BNF detractors who foresaw his departure to the BCP when he was still engaged in superficial self-denial.  But there is another side to the story.

By his behaviour and actions, Mabiletsa had long telegraphed his arrival at the BCP even before he was smoked out by the Prophet TB Joshuas of the BNF.  The MP himself must have known his next political home the moment he fell out with BNF leader Duma Boko and threw his lot with BCP MPs to oust Botsalo Ntuane as the Leader of the Opposition.  Thus when he denied the obvious on April 3, he was actually engaged in a poor exercise that hoodwinked no one.  He was a BCP MP in BNF colours only waiting for the opportune time to go home.  In doing this, Mabiletsa did not even remember his vehement denials about his impending move to the BCP.  It was business as usual and to hell with those who thought he was going to live up to his words of staying put at the BNF and 'going nowhere'. For this lot, principles, party policies and shared ideals do not matter.  The end justifies the means.  They can support Julius Malema and his calls for regime change in Botswana today and then join the regime the next day without any qualms.  What this lot wants is a political home and it does not matter whether they had once declared that 'new' home to be the mouth of a hungry hyena.  For the BNF, Mabiletsa's departure is another serious indictment on its leadership.  As deputy to Boko, Mabiletsa was the second highest-ranking BNF official.  He is the second deputy party leader and MP that the BNF has lost in the current Parliament after Olebile Gaborone bolted to the ruling party.

                                          Today's thought

'The politician is an acrobat; he keeps his balance by doing the opposite of what he says.'

                      - Maurice Barres (French Novelist and Politician, 1862-1923)