The abiding narrative of Tsholetsa House

| Friday August 9, 2013 00:00

 

The history of the Botswana Democratic Party's headquarters, Tsholetsa House, is a long narrative that weaves through decades, painting a young and struggling political party that rose from a Morula tree in Gaborone to become Botswana's only ruling party since independence.While the capital of Botswana was first in Mafikeng, and then Lobatse before Gaborone, the BDP - which came into being in 1962 - could have located its headquarters in Lobatse, which was more of an urban centre at the time. But the party instead chose to settle in the tribal capital of Bangwaketse, an interesting move as the party wanted to run its affairs from Kgosi Bathoen Gaseitsiwe's seat of power.

This is the man who had refused to join Seretse Khama when he was invited alongside other members of the Legislative Council in 1961 to form the Bechuanaland Democratic Party. His reasons were that as a chief, he did not want to dabble in politics, though he later joined the Botswana National Front and subsequently became its president.But the fact that Kgosi Bathoen allowed the BDP to have its head office in the principal town of his tribe showed tolerance on his part, especially at a time when chiefs exercised more carte blanche over their territories and subjects.In an interview with Mmegi yesterday, the BDP's first executive secretary Kebatlamang Morake revealed that the office in Kanye was actually not really an office but a small room in the homestead of the BDP's then secretary general, Ketumile Masire, who would later become the president of both party (BDP) and country.

'The office was located at Matebejana Ward in Kanye in 1962,' Morake recalls. 'We operated from Masire's home at the time. He doubled as secretary general and executive secretary because there was no one to do the work of executive secretary.Thus his work included maintaining correspondence with party officials and supporters across the country and friends of the party abroad.'  It was only three years later after the BDP won the first elections in 1965 that the party office moved to Gaborone where it was located again at Masire's home. 'He was the Deputy Prime Minister and I was given the guest room for living quarters,' says Morake. 'This time the party office was inside the garage at Masire's official residence.'From there the nomadic BDP office was moved to Gaborone's high-density neighbourhood of Bontleng where the party rented a two-roomed house that served as both living quarters and work station for the executive secretary, who was still Morake.Not content with the idea of always relocating that also carried the risk of losing important documents, the BDP decided to build a permanent office.

'We built a big complex with a lot of offices,' Morake remembers. 'I am talking about the building that is presently housing the Mascom head office just off the Main Mall (at the corner of Khama Crescent and Botswana Road).'The ruling party has leased out its headquarters building and is using a smaller house next to the national head office of the Botswana Public Employees Union (BOPEU) just behind it as Tsholetsa House. 'The Mascom building was built through contributions from party members and businesspeople who wanted to help the party to have a proper office of its own,' Morake explains.Morake says the BDP has grown, not only in membership but has also built more offices from which it runs party affairs in regions across Botswana. But what was the role of a BDP executive secretary back then? 'I went around Botswana preaching the BDP gospel and forming committees and teaching people how to fundraise,' comes the answer right away. 'We also had a monthly publication titled Therisanyo.'I was its editor. I would go around the country every month to collect articles from ministers and Members of Parliament. I would then edit them and with my typist, Mooketsa Lentswe, type them before taking them to Mafikeng for printing.'The executive secretary would then proofread all the articles before giving the printers the go-ahead to run proofs. Regular contributors were ministers like Ben Thema, who was an avid reader and prolific writer who often wrote articles in defence of the BDP and discrediting Marxism, which was popular among followers of the Botswana National Front (BNF).

Morake says in those days, they kept Batswana informed and entertained through incisive articles and debates that attracted a lot of people to the BDP fold. They also printed their membership cards in Mafikeng.But Botswana being a semi-desert proved difficult to traverse in the late 1960s and 1970s when tarred roads were few and far between. For a politician trying to reach out to people spread across the vast country was a challenge, especially for executive secretary of the BDP who had only two vehicles at his disposal - one in Serowe for the entire north of the country from Dibete, the other in Gaborone for the southern part of the country.'One was a Chevron while the other one was a half-ton truck,' Morake remembers. 'MPs used their own vehicles. Back then we only had 31 constituencies, only three of which were held by the opposition. Ga ke tsena mo kgaolong, an MP would take me in his vehicle and drive me around. I would then go on to campaign for him at freedom squares. 'O ta' bo a ntshupa, ke be ke simol'la ke ba kgwela bothoko ka Domkrag.'The pint-sized BDP veteran remembers that as he travelled to all parts of the country campaigning for the party he loves, his small frame often prompted people to poke fun at him. 'A lo raa go re ene ngwana yo o ta' kgona go re araba (Do you mean this child can take our questions?)' But he always rose to the occasion by responding fully to the questions, winning many a reluctant number to the BDP,' he says.Morake's work for the party saw him rise to become a specially elected MP and a minister in various portfolios. At the time he retired, he was the MP for Selebi-Phikwe and Minister of Agriculture.