Back in 2012, when Duma Boko was appointed by the contracting parties as the leader of the newly established Umbrella for Democratic (UDC), many outside the party that brought him to the limelight, the Botswana National Front (BNF) and the legal fraternity circles, knew little of the Mahalapye native. When seven years later, in 2019, I posted on my Facebook page that the reason Boko appealed to the ordinary folks was that “his is not what he is because of who his father is. He is self-made...” many supporters of our leaders were offended. FB guns came blazing, accusing me of insinuating that other leaders rode on family connections. At the time, Boko’s running mate was Botswana Congress Party (BCP) president, Dumelang Saleshando, son of Gilson Saleshando, former Member of Parliament (MP) and party leader.
The then ruling party, the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) had former president Mokgweetsi Masisi, son of one of the ministers in Sir Seretse Khama administration, the late Sethomo Masisi, and younger brother to former MP, the late Tshelang Masisi. Masisi had been handed the reins by former president Ian Khama, son of the founding president, Sir Seretse Khama, and his younger brother, Tshekedi Khama, was a minister who had resigned to join their new party, Botswana Patriotic Front, then under the leadership of Biggie Butale. The former Assistant Minister in the Khama administration, is the late Chapson Butale’s nephew, a minister in the late Sir Ketumile Masire’s administration. Also on the presidential race was the Alliance for Progressives (AP)’s Ndaba Gaolathe, the son of former Finance minister, the late Baledzi Gaolathe. On the presidential debate that fateful night, when his utterances were blamed for the UDC loss in the 2019 elections, Boko was the only ‘self-made’ man, or as he later labelled himself, a leader moulded and nurtured by the ordinary Batswana. Back to my friend’s comment, I am always quick to say maybe we do not know him as much. Different people hold different views and opinions about President Boko, the person and the politician. The President and I may have arrived in this world at Mahalapye Health Post (now hospital), two years apart and could easily have been transported in Rre Motiakone Tlhalerwa’s the legendary ‘taxi’ BM 66 ‘koloi ya batsetsi’ from the clinic to our family homesteads and went to the same primary school, Tamocha. But we did not cross paths as Mahalapians. I first got to know Boko when he was the chairperson of BONELA in the mid-2000s. One day I got an invite from Boko to the launch of an LGQTI+ organisation, LEGABIBO at the President Hotel. I was the chairperson the Press Council of Botswana.
