It is Wednesday evening when a red-blazered, white-shirted and 'black-tied' General Mompati Merafhe painfully walks into the glare of bright lights at the Btv theatre.
He squints a bit as he steps gingerly. The middle of the public gallery goes wild and brandishes red placards in the fashion of the Mexican wave. On either side of the BDP diehards sit BNF and BCP supporters so that the audience looks like a flag of green, red and yellow from left, centre and right. A week or so before, most members of the media and the public were looking forward to this, believing it was going to be a presidential debate. BNF President Otsweletse Moupo had, perhaps salivating at the prospect of a face-to-face engagement with his 'nemesis', loudly fretted over the idea of BDP President Ian Khama going AWOL on him and his BCP 'comrade' Gilson Saleshando. However, the Director of Broadcasting Services Mogomotsi Kaboeamodimo comes forth with a rather elaborate explication: this is not going to be a presidential debate as such. "The final debate this Wednesday is restricted to political parties that have fielded presidential candidates for the 2009 elections," says 'his master's voice'. "These political parties are the Botswana National Front, the Botswana Democratic Party and the Botswana Congress Party."
