allAfrica.com: Botswana: What Mogae Left Us With (Page 1 of 2)

President Festus Mogae's first stop at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning on his way to the highest office was, as almost all appointments are at that level, a compromise between hard attitudes on opposite ends of the organisational spectrum at the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP).

It was popularly believed then that retired Lt General Mompati Merafhe would have had the Vice Presidency, had it not been for his perceived bellicose manner on his dramatic entry into politics. He started on the wrong footing right from the very beginning, when he was thoroughly licked by the then BDP chairman Peter Mmusi, at the Palapye congress, after he was warned that his chances were even slimmer against Secretary General, Daniel Kwelagobe, in the early 1990s.

He was to confess privately on the way to opening the Botswana Journalists Association (BOJA) workshop on 'press freedom' that "I would not have gotten myself involved in this if I had known that this is the way they do things".

Merafhe, like a soldier, was not impressed with the level of respect for duty and discipline in the discharge of assignments.

Ponatshego Kedikilwe, counted among the handful of Botswana pioneers in the field of economy, had also presented himself as something of a robust counter-puncher, following in the footsteps of Kebatlamang Morake, against newly elected Leader of the Opposition, Kenneth Koma.

Mogae, in Ketumile Masire's eyes, was the more conciliatory of the two among others who might have contended, and landed the appointment which would, in the scheme of BDP things, automatically make him the next President.

Masire was, in the eyes of the party youth then led by a more active Jacob Nkate, with Tebelelo Seretse and Gaotlhaetse Matlhabaphiri as 'senior' members, of the old stock that was inadequately prepared to take on the new challenges of the 21st Century globalisation and the craftiness of Koma, who according to BDP legend, should never have been permitted to go to Parliament. Seretse had warned so before he departed, the party veterans said.

Apparently, the BNF was cheering for David Magang, whom, they believed would make a weaker adversary. There was still room for a cabinet reshuffle that would make almost anything possible, but it did not happen. It was evident though that it was only the fact of her being a woman and Ikalanga in origin that disqualified the workaholic, Gaositwe Chiepe from qualifying as President.

Mogae, emerged the golden-eyed boy of the BDP in the 1990s, using that position to rebuke the Barolong farmers who wanted debt relief at the National Development Bank on account of bankruptcy, drought, lack of financial security and the other traditional reasons for failure.

His admirers were soon disappointed at the softening of the 'iron fist' that saw him yield to political pressure, seeking round-about means to offer party colleagues and errant civil servants a financial dispensation that did not measure well against his good sense of economics.

However, he did something to lift the threshold for taxpayers, also abolishing the local government tax, which proved too expensive to collect for its contribution to government revenues. He was tight fisted and became famous for economic cliches, among them 'we must tighten our belts', and so on, even as those measures seemed to apply only to labour, though they did not seem to apply to senior civil servants, the parliamentarians and captains of the parastatals.

Mogae rose to the helm because of economic know how, and the need - as was acknowledged by Masire as early as 1986 - for representation at the decision making venues on the international playing field. He had to travel.

Masire should have advised, following the Schlemner report to the BDP going towards the 1999 general election, that Ian Khama should be roped in to 'keep the home fires burning' as Mogae campaigned abroad.

To this day, many blame Mogae for his style of briefcase governance which distanced him from the BDP's most important constituency, the elderly rural women. That, however, was not his political mission.

His was to lead the negotiations for the Southern African Customs Union, Southern African Development Community, Cotonou agreements, and multifarious bilateral and regional trade agreements with the European Union, lenders in the Middle East banks, the African Development Bank, the IMF and the World Bank in order to secure Botswana's interests, under conditions much more difficult to negotiate than under Seretse or Masire.

The benefits of work at the international level only became apparent when he brought the Anti-retroviral (ARVs) home to combat AIDS, even if there will be questions about access of Botswana to research findings of the 'friendly' organisations that have assisted with drugs.

The cynics who give him credit for his efforts in the battle against AIDS will also question whether the pandemic was also exploited to cover up for drastic failures in other development undertakings which should have happened in spite and despite, or alongside the battle against the spread of HIV.

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