Adam Phetlhe
Out of the blue on Thursday in parliament, the erstwhile Member of Parliament (MP) for Mahalapye East Rre Yandani Boko dropped a bombshell by submitting a letter of resignation to the Speaker of the National Assembly Hon Phandu Skelemani. Bombshell in the sense that I did not expect an MP to resign his seat seven months from completing his term and particularly the financial loss they stood to lose in these trying financial times.
Such financial loss would entail a monthly salary, sitting allowance and external per diem MPs enjoy. The resignation without doubt signalled his fall from been one of the youngest legislators in Botswana’s political history. Until he shot to prominence towards the 2019 general election as a parliamentary candidate for Mahalapye East under the Umbrella for Democratic Change, very few people I believe knew Rre Boko. Not only that but whether he could win the constituency.
But history tells us that he won the constituency with 4323 followed by BDP’s Dr Ecco Ditshupo Maje with 3786 and lastly BPF’s Rre Lazarus Diphetogo Lekgoanyana with 2145 votes. There were 12267 registered voters in the constituency. As a consequence, Rre Boko was declared the winner and ultimately sworn in as a Member of Parliament. When he was about to finish his term as a Member of Parliament, the self-created internal political dynamics in the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) would have the final say in his political future thereat. This in my view is the cause of his fall.
One of the outstanding contributions of Rre Boko in parliament was his 2020 Motion that was brought under a certificate of urgency which sought to ‘urge the President to set up a Commission of Inquiry on gender-based violence, rape and other sexual offences, as a matter of urgency in terms of the Commissions of Inquiry Act.’
Given the gender-based violence scourge that has kept the nation on its tenterhooks and its deleterious consequences, the BDP MPs trivialised the debate on the Motion with the Minister responsible for gender matters at the time Hon Anna Mokgethi leading the charge against the Motion by suggesting that the Motion be discussed at the General Assembly before bringing it to the floor of parliament for debate. The conduct of the BDP with regard to the Motion was trivialised on the basis of cheap politics than its substance. At the end of the day, Rre Boko’s Motion very important as it was and still is, died a natural death consequent to cheap political point scoring.
While he explained on radio that he was mentally overwhelmed by the lack of support from those he expected to provide it, it is clear to discern from the interview he was referring to the political leadership of both the Botswana National Front (BNF) and the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC). This it would appear, was the beginning of the end for him. Already, there are so many conspiracy theories as to why he took such an abrupt decision. But that is not part of this conversation. The political dynamics I referred to in the opening paragraph are that the UDC took an unfair and selective criteria that MPs who were expelled from the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) would not be subjected to a primary elections process while those from other partnering parties would be.
The MP for Mahalapye West Hon David Tshere who is one of those expelled by the BCP, is enjoying a free ride to defend his constituency in the 2024 general election. This selective process was a red flag from the beginning which the UDC leadership should have foreseen and avoided at all costs for obvious reasons. Both Rre Boko and Hon Tshere won their respective next door constituencies under the same UDC. Why should the tables turn this time around? It has been murmured that potential candidates to challenge Rre Boko were lurking in the horizon. Whether that is true or not is still to be confirmed. As a sitting MP as he was then, he would have had personal knowledge of the arrangement if indeed it existed. The claim he makes to the effect that he made representations to the UDC leadership wherein he requested equal protection against challengers is still to be tested by the said leadership rebutting or confirming it. But in this silly season of politics, it is unthinkable that the leadership would confirm that such representation was made.
Why would Rre Boko, notwithstanding the challenges he says he faced, not soldier on to complete his term? It would appear the kitchen was too hot for him to wait any longer. It is said his own political party BNF and the UDC got the news of his resignation like anyone else. This suggests the relationship had broken down irretrievably.
Even before the abrupt resignation of Rre Boko, the UDC is seized with an internal strife of dealing with the aftermath of constituency allocations to its cooperating parties. Some members of cooperating parties are openly defying or rejecting such allocations. The bone of contention is that the UDC stands to lose winnable constituencies allocated to cooperating parties with insignificant footprint is such constituencies. Not to be outdone, council wards are also firmly in the mix. Former BCP Councillors who opted to remain under the UDC are reportedly meeting stiff resistance from cooperating party members who feel the BCP Councillors are imposed on them by the UDC leadership. Like their MP colleagues, they will not go through the primary election process. It will be interesting to see how the UDC deals with the mounting internal strife in order to stabilise the party and to achieve unquestionable unity on the way to the 2024 general election.
If the UDC had protected Rre Yandani Boko from being challenged like is the case with his former MP colleagues, it is highly probable he would not have resigned. It is in the public domain that notwithstanding that UDC cooperating parties have not yet held primary elections to choose council ward and parliamentary candidates, some sitting UDC MPs appear to have already been declared unopposed to contest in the 2024 general election. It is well and good to suggest he should have waited to fight from within.
I would ask: what is the point of doing so when it is evident the playing field is not even. The instabilities that have become synonymous with political parties en-route to a general election have on the objective facts, been caused by double standards to choose the candidates. Unless political parties cure their processes to enable a fair and competitive political game, these types of occurrences will continue to rock them to their detriment. It is sad to watch young people exiting the political arena. In recent times, it was Mme Bogolo Kenewendo and now Rre Yandani Boko. I am prepared to be persuaded otherwise as always. Judge for Yourself!
*All the best to our very queen Lesego Chombo. Bring it home. How can I forget to congratulate bomme on celebrating International Women’s Day? Halala Bomme Halala.