Ephraim Keoreng
13 November 2009
"When the party does not fare well, as a leader I should take responsibility. I have even considered resigning," says Botswana Peoples Party (BPP) president, Bernard Balikani.
It is hard for such words to come from a political leader. Usually politicians give all manner of excuses to explain failure even if they are the ones at fault. Has Balikani realised that the BPP needs a new leader who can resuscitate it to its former glory, when it used to be the main opposition party. A lot has been said and written about the dwindling performance of the BPP. After the departure of charismatic leaders like Phillip Matante and national anthem composer, Dr Tumediso Motsetse, the party has not been doing well. Its presence shrunk to the northern party of the country and its performance at the polls retrogressed to a meagre 1.4 percent of the national vote. The BPP fared so badly that even Nehemiah Modubule who stood as an independent candidate won as an MP, while the BPP only got three 45 council seats. With a measly total of 7,554 votes, the BPP performed worse than the independents with 10,464 votes. Looking at these facts, it is perhaps understandable that Balikani feels that the time has come for him to give the baton to someone else.
However, the Botswana National Front (BNF) president, Otsweletse Moupo, whose party has also not been doing well in the recent past has said that he will not resign. This is despite the fact that the party slid from 25.5 percent in 2004 to 23 percent in the 2009 elections. Recently, Moupo told a press conference that the BNF performed dismally because of protracted internal strife. "Politics is not like private companies where the board members can say because the company is not making profits, you must resign. The people of BNF will decide whom they want at the 2010 July congress. I was elected and will not just resign because a few malcontents are calling for my resignation," he said.
This is unlike Balikani who adopts a simple approach to deal with the party loss. "I don't think our party or any other for that matter, can keep a leader when he is not doing well," he said.
History is replete with stories of great men, women and institutions who were once mighty, but regressed to become bystanders as great events happen. The Botswana political history gives a telling tale about the inevitability of change-that even great institutions can crumble to be relegated from the centre to the periphery. That is what has happened to the BPP, the first political party to be formed in Botswana. The party was founded by the highly educated Motsete and became a formidable political force.
Later, it was led by Phillip Matante, a charismatic politician whose leadership skills attracted many to the party. At a time when people were worried about the Boers' threat of incorporating Botswana into South Africa as a province, many found comfort and security in the BPP motto which asserted that the land belongs to Batswana and no one else. Playing on the nationalist euphoria, Matante worked hard to market his party and popularise it to the nation. It was a national movement on fire. Though the party did not take power in the independence elections, it was a powerful opposition force which was taken seriously by both the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) and the international community. Because of his activism, Matante had been sent to the United Nations in 1962 to argue the case for Botswana's independence. He won the Tati East parliamentary seat (the present day Francistown), which he held untill his death in 1979.
There are similarities in the history of the BPP and BNF. Just as BPP had a stalwart in Matante, the BNF had its own driving force in Dr Kenneth Koma. Koma was a charismatic leader who knew how to endear himself to the grassroots. He made them see in him a reflection of themselves.
Unfortunately, as his popularity soared, he surrounded himself with sycophants who were always ready to do his bidding. Like a Greek tragic hero, it was his people skills that destroyed him.
The other tragic trait of his leadership was that he hated people who showed signs of succeeding him. This has hurt the BNF to date, for after his departure, there was no strong leader to take the party to the level of greatness that it used to enjoy. His successor, Moupo, a simple individual who commands no charisma has become a subject of ridicule and controversy.
The party which has been regarded as the strongest contender to dislodge the BDP from power is on a downward spiral. Some say Moupo has failed to lead the BNF and he should quit. But he is not ready to go.
"Our central committee will this weekend go on a retreat where they will discuss issues like the election results and also chart the way forward, to ensure the party wins the next general elections in 2014. People can blame Moupo and the central committee for the party's loss, but they are not necessarily the cause of the poor performance. We will be looking at reports from various regions across the country. They will indicate what really went wrong," said BNF spokesperson Moeti Mohwasa
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