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.
