If we had a position in the Central Committee for Secretary for Culture or something to that effect it will definitely go to him. We now have to ask ourselves whether those are the qualities that we need for a Secretary General of the party, in that the world, is no longer analogue but digital. The young man has got inherent weaknesses that militates against his ambition of becoming the party's central nerve. If I can take the reader down memory lane of Sir G's leadership qualities, especially in the Youth Wing without any prejudice to him.
The man literally ran down the erstwhile vibrant Youth Wing built during the Seloma up to the Lesang Magang times. He inherited an active and vibrant wing and demoralized it to the extent that when he ultimately left it only existed in name. The structure he left was so disorganized and indebted that it is still struggling to receive its fortunes to date. Some of his short comings are that the man likes Grand Standing. He has never been a hard worker while leading the youth, this aspect demoralised his peers and it will take a genius to uplift the fortunes of the wing. The debts that his committee left are still haunting them even now. It is natural nobody wants to toil alone while somebody is sitting at the high table enjoying the results of your work. The argument that he is a grassroots person does not hold, attending funerals and weddings is everybody's domain, in fact at those occasions you will never see him soiling his hands, he will just be there chatting surrounded by his admirers who follow him everywhere. Unfortunately his attitude of grand standing and wanting to outshine his peers is the reason why in Molepolole a large number of the young people are not going to vote for him. This was evident going to the Serowe Congress where it is believed he was half hearted in the campaigns because he felt hard done by his faction for fielding Botsalo ahead of him. Further the fact that he has never run a constituency is a serious blur on his CV, I have never seen him do any house to house campaign, then tell me how he can run the BDP. Another fact is that his leadership of the Gaborone Region has not really helped him to appreciate that party interests should come before self, e.g. during the Masitara campaign he failed to organize his region to campaign for the party candidate because he had preferred Limited Nkane over Masitara. In fact he never set foot in the constituency during the campaigns preferring to go to Ramotswa to help a councilor who belonged to his faction even though it was in the open how it was important for the party to win in Gaborone especially that we were facing Moupo, then tell me how he can lead our party to the 2009 elections, I have my doubts. The Gaborone West campaign provided him with a great opportunity to showcase his leadership credentials; it was a campaign that needed us all in the party, instead it was people outside his region who were active, while his region was relaxed.
To compound this his Region is one of the least active in party work, despite it being in the opposition strong area. We should be seeing strong organisation and activity in Gaborone if Gomolemo had anything to offer. This party needs a leader who can rise above petty factional considerations and lead. We have seen Nkate at every campaign despite the differences that were there in the party. This is not to argue that Nkate is by far the best thing that has happened to the party but with his experience I prefer him to Motswaledi. Nkate has amassed a lot of experience from his erstwhi1e leadership of the youth wing despite his weaknesses because everybody has them. This position needs a mature democrat that everybody can respect and look up to for guidance even if they hate him inside. I believe Nkate provides that. There is another argument Nkate as an MP and Minister has too much on his hands to have time for this position. I beg to differ in that DK ran the secretarial so well before he ran short of ideas and fatigue got the better of him over the years. Gomolemo is an employee of the University one wonders how many leave days he has accrued to have time to dedicate to the BDP. He will have to ask for leave from his employer who might refuse and we get stuck when we need him to be in Okavango to do party work, Nkate will not need to ask for leave from anyone. My belief is that for him to clamour for the SG position is a continuation of his attitude of outshining his peers, some of whom are in Parliament which is his main undoing, also the position he currently holds does not provide him with much opportunity to grandstand, which he desperately needs. The SG is a very important position in the party we cannot afford to experiment with it.
Kalachani Mabina
GABORONE
