BDP’s purging of secretaries-general

During former president Ian Khama’s tenure as State and party president, the BDP tamed former strongman, Daniel Kwelagobe, the late robust Gomolemo Motswaledi, Jacob Nkate and Kentse Rammidi. When Masisi was the Vice President and party chairperson, Botsalo Ntuane, once a rising star of the BDP, was the first to be pushed out and now it seems hell has broken loose again with Balopi. Whilst Kwelagobe, popularly known as ‘DK’ in his heydays chose to lose his Cabinet position in favour of the secretary-general post, he would later relent when he chose to become the party chairperson. At the end of the day, he was pushed out just like Nkate who was forced to choose between the secretary-general position and a Cabinet position. Nkate would settle for the latter.

As for the late Motswaledi and some of his colleagues who had freshly won party positions at an elective congress in Kanye through the Barataphathi factional ticket, they were never recognised in the BDP until they were forced to leave the party to form their own, the Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) in 2010.