Although there was speculation that he was going to be a nominated councillor, but former Gaborone West South MP, Robert Molefhabangwe has been left out of the list of nominated councillors.

Molefhabangwe's name was not amongst the list of nominated councillors who were announced by the Ministry of Local Government. There was talk that Molefhabangwe will not only be appointed a nominated councillor but would ultimately become the mayor of Gaborone.

But members of the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) Barata Phathi faction who are dominant in the Gaborone City Council, had vowed to block any attempts to install Molefhabangwe as the city mayor. In fact they also opposed his proposed nomination to the city council.

A former Botswana National Front (BNF) stalwart, Molefhabangwe recently defected to the BDP. There was speculation that he would be appointed as a nominated councillor for Gaborone City Council and ultimately as the city mayor.

But Barata Phati councilors had said they would use their numbers to frustrate any attempts to crown Molefhabangwe as a mayor. Although he claims that he is not a factionalist, Molefhbangwe is identified with the A-team faction which is also associated with the party president, Ian Khama.

Molefhabangwe contested this year's elections as an independent candidate after he was expelled from the BNF. He failed to make a come back as an MP and recently joined the BDP.

The BDP has taken control of the Gaborone City Council after more than 20 years. The Gaborone City Council has been under the BNF control since 1984 when the opposition party swept the boards in the capital city. Since then the BDP has been fighting to gain full control of Gaborone.

But in this year's elections, the BDP managed to unseat the BNF in Gaborone. Actually the BNF has only grabbed one council seat in the whole of Gaborone.

The only other party with a significant figure in Gaborone is the Botswana Congress Party (BCP). However, the BCP figure is not anywhere to challenge the BDP majority. This means that the mayor would be from the BDP.

There has speculation that Molefhabangwe would be elected as the mayor if he was to be appointed as a nominated councillor. But members of the Barathi phathi were not only opposed to this move but even to his nomination to council.

The newly MP for Gaborone West South, Botsalo Ntuane who stood against Molefhabangwe during the elections, is a staunch member of the Barati phati faction.

On the eve of elections when he was addressing his final rally at Gaborone West, Molefhabangwe directed his attacks not on the BDP but against Ntuane.

He accused Ntuane of not working with other BDP members. Molefhabangwe said when the BDP was launching other parliamentary candidates in Gaborone, Ntuane would be hosting a popular South African music group, Splash on the other side of town.

At some stage, Molefhabangwe threatened to beat up Ntuane after the latter started distributing his campaign materials at the rally.

Molefhabangwe's attacks on Ntuane shocked many people because during the initial days, the parliamentary candidates in Gaborone West South had undertaken not to wage personal attacks.

It was not anticipated that Molefhabangwe would join the ruling party that he has been opposing for 36 years.

After he was expelled from the BNF, Molefhabangwe declared that he would not contest the elections as an independent candidate. He said he would rather join one of the small parties that had not fielded candidates in Gaborone West South.

He said it would be wrong for him to stand as an independent candidate because he has always been advocating for the unity of opposition parties.

But Molefhabangwe went against his words when he stood as an independent candidate.

Meanwhile, an official at the BDP secretariat, Lee Lesetedi said the Gaborone councillors are the ones who would caucus on who would become the city mayor.

In the past, BDP councilors in the South East, were expelled from the party, for voting contrary to what was directed at the party caucus.