POLITICAL DIE-HARD
Molefhabangwe returns to active politics as Parley candidate
Former Botswana National Front (BNF) Member of Parliament (MP) for Gaborone West Robert Molefhabangwe, has joined the recently-formed Botswana Labour Party (BLP) after a fallout with Advocate Duma Boko.
Molefhabangwe was initially expelled from the then Otsweletse Moupo-led BNF in 2009 before re-joining BNF in 2019. After many years of mild activism Molf, as he is affectionately known, is now ready to contest the Shoshong constituency.
Asked why this is so, the political veteran said that his return to political activism is about the situation in the village.
“The situation of the village in terms of the level of development is beckoning. The constituency is yearning for development. It is up to us to have all hands on deck so that we awaken our people politically,” Molefhabangwe said. A formidable debater and a speaker of at least 23 languages, Molefhabangwe has always been cagey about his academic qualifications, maintaining that it is not in him to boast about his educational qualifications.
“I am not knowledgeable or highly educated as some people often say,” he protested despite the fact that he can speak a total of 23 languages, 10 of which are African, while 13 are non-African.
“I achieved this by interacting with the speakers of these languages mostly here in Botswana,” the former MP, who is working on learning the Hambukushu language, revealed!
To many, Molefhabangwe is a controversial and difficult person who is impossible to manage due to overconfidence on his part. To others, he is an intelligent, approachable, discerning and principled politician who does not suffer fools and dishonesty too gladly.
His interaction with politics at a young age is blamed for his boldness and overconfidence which to some, borders on insolence. “I joined politics in 1975 at the age of 18. As a student at Shashe River School, we had many teachers from Zimbabwe (the then Rhodesia). Some of them were political refugees from countries such as South Africa, Namibia and Angola. “I also became a member of the Botswana Youth Federation which organisation spread leftist politics throughout the country,” Molefhabangwe said in an interview with The Midweek Sun. His interaction with politicians, particularly political refugees from neighbouring countries that were fighting for their liberation, contributed to his political development. As a youngster, Molf attended clandestine seminars conducted by South African refugees in Botswana who were escaping persecution from the rogue apartheid regime. “After joining the BNF Youth League, we alongside the other members, underwent political education which engendered political awareness in us,” Molf said about his political development as a youth.
“One of the values we were taught at the time was selflessness. We understood politics to be not about fighting for positions amongst ourselves. Selflessness was a very critical value to us as the future leaders. “To us politics was about service and sacrifice. As such, we did not fight for positions such as council or parliamentary seats because we were trained to not yearn for party positions but to serve the people selflessly,” Molefhabangwe revealed. Interestingly, although a dyed in the wool BNF operative, when Molefhabangwe voted for the first time, he chose the Botswana Peoples Party.
“The BNF did not have the numbers to beat the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) in Francistown,
I decided to vote the BPP instead because it stood a much bigger chance of beating the ruling party in Francistown than my party. I had deliberately registered to vote in Francistown to support BPP,” the opposition icon reminisced.
In fact, according to him, his decision was in line with the BNF leader, Dr Kenneth Koma’s desire that, opposition parties, should, whenever possible vote together at the expense of the ruling party in places where, working together would hurt the ruling party.
Molefhabangwe’s friendship with the
BPP activists would grow stronger in 1989 when the BNF, BPP and the Peoples Progressive Union (PPU) together formed the Peoples’ Progressive Front (PPF) to work as a collective in order to not split their vote.
The debilitating BNF spilt of 1998, which saw the departure of several party members forming the rival Botswana Congress Party (BCP), left Molefhabangwe, who had all along been reluctant to contest the elections, with no choice but to avail himself for parliament in the 1999 general election which elections he won.
“The BNF lost 11 out of its 13 members of parliament in the 1998 split which was occasioned by internal party differences in the BNF. I had no choice but to contest the election,” Molefhabangwe.
He became MP for Gaborone West after beating Paul Rantao of the just formed BCP and Ishmael Komanyane of the ruling party in the general elections of 1999. Molefhabangwe would lose the parliamentary seat to Botsalo Ntuane of the ruling party in the 2009 general election.