President Advocate Duma Gideon Boko
The Pan Afrikanist Watchman
When on 8th August 2024 Letsile Tebogo won the 200m final at the Paris Olympics, securing the first-ever gold medal for Botswana with a time of 19.46s, Duma Boko, president of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) celebrated the sprinting sensation in a self-confirming prediction prose.
“Our athletes have flown the flag and brought adulation upon our country. We call their names with pride. We witnessed the stunning victory of Letsile Tebogo, who is worth his weight in gold, at the Paris Olympics.
“We all united, fractured and fissured nation that we are, as he touched the very nimbus of glory, and brought it all home to all of us. It was a moment of joy for a people generally low on hope. The resulting euphoria is warranted.
“But it must not numb us and cause us to forget the grim realities facing us. I pray that Letsile Tebogo’s victory serve as an inspiration to all our people; a sweet reminder of what dogged determination can produce.
“Here is an ordinary child, rom a humble background, of no remarkable parentage; ordinary as they come, who raises himself on his own bootstraps to conquer the world.
“There are other children emerging from situations of bootlessness, who now have inspiration and affirmation, that they can also be great. His victory could not be sweeter and more meaningful.
“Accorded no attention at all, mentioned mainly as a footnote to narratives about others deemed more colourful, he sent all detractors and doubters into bewildered silence. He pulled a spectacular historic victory; a first for Botswana. The boastful noises of the entitled were silenced. We celebrate”
Now with the benefit of hindsight, can we say this was a self-fulfilling prophecy? Indeed, yes! Word for word Duma Boko sculpted his own script – and on Friday the 1st of November 2024 – it came to pass, when the Chief Justice, Terence Rannowane declared him President elect in accordance with Section 32 (3) (d) of the Constitution after his party’s stunning performance in the country’s general elections, crossing the 31 constituencies threshold, with more constituencies remaining to be counted.
In an emphatic drubbing, Boko’s UDC had sent Botswana’s political behemoth – Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) which has ruled the country for an uninterrupted 58 years since independence in 1966 – to the doldrums, panting and vexed at the tail-end of the race with four constituencies to its name!
Later that evening, the Chief Justice swore Advocate Duma Gideon Boko in as the country’s sixth President at the Mass Media Complex (Botswana Television) to obviate any possibility of a void before his inauguration.
Let’s contextualise this moment. In the morning of the same day, President Dr Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi, consciously aware that power is fast slipping from his and the Botswana Democratic Party’s firm grip, calls a Press Conference to concede defeat and assure Boko of a smooth transfer of power.
Actually, a day earlier, 31st October to be precise, Masisi had called Boko to congratulate him and his party in light of the gains and inroads they were making during the ballot counting for Parliamentary constituencies.
Four Presidential candidates were contesting – Masisi’s BDP; Boko’s UDC, Mephato Reatile’s Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF); Dumelang Saleshando’s Botswana Congress Party (BCP). UDC was far ahead of the pack, BCP trudging behind with over ten constituencies while BPF was sitting comfortable with five constituencies ahead of BDP’s four!
The writing had long been on the wall. Following the decisive 2019 elections in which BDP had remarkably won majority seats in the 57-member parliament, all subsequent Council by-elections were won by the UDC.
It didn’t even matter that the BCP had pulled out of the UDC and BPF was prevaricating until it finally left, the UDC still won.
Now, when crunch time arrived in October 30th 2024, UDC- comprising Ndaba Gaolathe’s Alliance for Progressives (AP) and Motlatsi Molapisi’s Botswana People’s Party (BPP) – was an oiled machine ready to confront the behemoth and its abettors, head-on.
And so, in one fell swoop in the afternoon of 1st November 2024, Boko’s UDC had achieved the unthinkable – removing BDP from power with aits Manifesto message that resonated with the electorate!
The party had articulated the people’s problems and proffered solutions to lift them out of their misery characterised by abject poverty, unemployment, poor education system, corruption, false promises and a healthcare system on a deathbed.
But truth be told, there was also divine intervention. This election was an exact replica of 2019 when the voters shunned the UDC on account of its hobnobbing with Lt. Gen. Dr Ian Khama, Masisi’s predecessor!
Clearly, the electorate did not care who the BDP representative was, they just wanted to vote Masisi in as President, and this they achieved, inspite of the cacophony of rigging claims by the uDC.
Now, the same thing has happened this time with the electorate shunning the BDP and Masisi and voting Boko en-masse. No-one is crying foul. Does this vindicate the IEC?
The absence of violence or untoward incident throughout the voting process speaks to the innate nature of Batswana as a peaceful people, but above all, most likely the people that God likes to abide with.
(C) TPA2024
