The political puzzle in Letlhakeng west
It is a race too close to call. On the surface it appears as if the odds are stacked against the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) in the Letlhakeng West parliamentary elections this weekend. But on a closer look the fiery race for votes still remain too close to call. By Sunday morning, either the Botswana National Front’s (BNF) Filbert Nagafela or the BDP’s Magang Ngaka Ngaka will be smiling all the way to Parliament to replace former constituency MP, the late Maxwell Motowane. Both parties admit that given the complexity of the minds in the area, it would be suicidal to bank on past statistics.
The BDP in particular are a weary party, and are not taking anything for granted. Perhaps given the backing of their financial might, the ruling party has continued to be thorough in their bid to capture the hearts and minds of the electorate in the area. Their house-to-house campaigns have penetrated some of the areas supposedly out of reach of their opponents, with the help of several vehicles that were dispatched by the party. By Wednesday, sources within the campaign teams said they had combed through far removed lands and cattle-posts of all polling districts in the constituency.
One BDP ground campaign strategist who has been speaking to this paper said they were beginning to get clear signs of imminent victory, but admitted they were particularly worried by the landscape in Maboane and Ditshegwane. Regarding progress of their house-to-house campaigns in satellite settlements of Maboane, she said some were insulting and chasing them like dogs out of their abodes, telling them in Sekgalagadi to go and seek votes from tribes taken seriously by their party’s government.
Yet in other areas of Maboane, they found some relief from what they claim to be the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) followers who promised to vote with the ruling party against publicised BCP official stance to support the opposition. “Obviously we are happy with that. There are a good number of BCP people in the Maboane area and if they vote with us, then we can enhance our already bright chances,” she said Wednesday. The BCP participated in the recent council by-elections of Maboane ward and received 60 votes against the BDP’s 246 and the BNF’s 339.
A further probe revealed that the cited BCP followers were being sworn into secrecy on the matter by some party operatives in the area who do not support their leadership’s call to vote for the BNF’s Nagafela. These allegations however, the BCP leadership has summarily rubbished as baseless and probably even a creation of someone with malicious intent. The party’s spokesperson Taolo Lucas rebutted: “We have stated categorically that the BCP membership in the constituency should vote for the BNF. There is no truth in that.” Yet even without their expected underground support from the party in green, the BDP seems content that the youth vote will also carry them through.
The youthful voters in the area call Nagafela “monnamogolo” (old man) who should leave politics to their kind. Led in their campaigns by Mephato Reatile, the party has been bringing to the various polling districts, one major attraction after the other this week, in order to boost their chances. The vice president Ponatshego Kedikilwe was in Salajwe on Tuesday while the entire Women’s Wing leadership as well as senior party members such as Mpho Balopi, Samson Guma Moyo and Macdonald Peloewetse descended on Takatokwane on Saturday. On the other hand, the BNF also look pretty sure to retain the constituency they lost to Motowane by 34 votes in 2009.
Their campaigns in the region are anchored by the likes of Mohamed Khan, Gomolemo Motswaledi, Gilbert Mangole and Nehemiah Modubule among other well-known opposition figures. While Motswaledi was addressing a rally in Takatokwane on Saturday, Modubule, Mangole and Wynter Molotsi were each in a different village in the constituency to canvass more votes for the BNF. So committed have been the BMD representatives in this campaign that even after his car overturned in the line of political duty on Sunday, Motswaledi was able to dust himself up and immediately returned to the BNF campaigns and was this Thursday expected to address one of the BNF rallies with Nagafela.
The BNF campaign has been buoyed by the belief that the people in the area are still unhappy that the senior secondary school they were promised by the education ministry at a kgotla meeting during Nagafela’s era has since been pushed aside. Another major road project was also last mentioned when then MP Nagafela had brought the transport minister to the constituency. Now the people blame Motowane and the BDP for failure to follow up the issues during their tenure. Somehow they believe Nagafela had been a better MP, citing his vocal stance against government’s negative attitude towards Bakgalagadi. Despite the BDP’s meticulous infiltration of the area over the past few weeks, some people still see the BDP candidate Ngaka as an elitist outsider whose interests are largely in Gaborone.
Christened ‘City boy’ in the area, Ngaka is also seen to be a proud and wealthy man too removed from even his home village of Sesung to advocate for the needs of the constituents. These, and the fact that Nagafela narrowly lost the constituency, are giving the opposition hope. Yet there is also the issue of the so-called BNF counter-revolutionaries made up of expelled Gabriel Kanjabanga, Lemogang Ntime and others. The former BNF activists are said to be antagonising BNF efforts to raise numbers by ill-mouthing the party in the area, urging the people to wake up to the reality that by voting for Nagafela, they would rather be voting the UDC, and not BNF. The BNF officialdom has rendered the group inconsequential despite deep-seated sentiments that they could do damage to their efforts.