Boko, Masisi same Leadership styles
Boko’s UDC lost to Masisi’s BDP at the 2019 General Election as voters chose their preferred candidates and party. In Botswana, there is no direct election of the president so voters never really had an opportunity to choose their preferred president between Boko and Masisi. That brings us to the issue of leadership traits between the two leaders, something that Saleshando feels, in his view is common amongst the two.
Speaking at a recent political rally Saleshando, who has since decided to carve an alternative path with Ndaba Gaolathe’s Alliance for Progressives (AP), says voting for Boko into power is the same as removing a problem (Masisi) and replacing it with another (Boko).
The Maun West legislator stated that if people vote for either the ruling BDP or UDC they will be looking for unruly people. “Wa itlhophela
The leadership qualities of Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) president, Duma Boko and Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) president, Mokgweetsi Masisi have come under assessment following Botswana Congress Party (BCP) president, Dumelang Saleshando’s recent sentiments that the two are basically the same, ‘Masisi and Masisinyana’. Mmegi staffer
explores the possible similarities
TLHANKANE
gore ao tsaa chekwane kana o tsaa chekwane e ntsha. Ao tsaa Masisi ka BDP kana o tsaa Masisinyana ka Boko,” the suspended vice president UDC said.
Looking at the way both Masisi and Boko run the affairs of their respective parties, Saleshando’s sentiments are not exactly farfetched. With Boko, there is an exception because unlike Masisi, he runs two organisations being the opposition coalition, UDC, and his political home Botswana National Front (BNF).
As presidents, both Boko and Masisi assert control over their parties as they have managed to address stifling dissents using their domineering styles of leadership. Both demand total loyalty and at times it has appeared extreme. Masisi over the years has fallen out with some of his once loyal lieutenants who had failed to
fall in line and adhered to his style of leadership. One such example is Masisi’s fallout with his once blue-eyed boy, Mpho Balopi. The strained relations between the two forced the Gaborone North legislator to vacate his Cabinet post and eventually he did not defend his secretary-general position at a recent BDP elective congress in Tsabong.
There is also Specially Elected Member of Parliament (SEMP), Unity Dow who also lost favour with Masisi and was eventually pushed out of her Cabinet post.
Former Finance Minister, Dr Thapelo Matsheka who was demoted to a junior ministry of Infrastructure and Housing Development and ultimately dropped from Cabinet, also had a bitter fallout with Masisi. All these incidents make it increasingly clear that Masisi’s relationship with his team tends to turn bitter and there is usually no turning back. Coupled with that, Masisi has a noticeable management failure to assemble a relatively stable and loyal team of people and that has cost him because he keeps making replacements every now and then. He is one leader who has just about fired everybody.
Similarly, Boko’s party domination at both UDC and BNF is quite the same as Masisi because dissenters have either been fired from the the party or kept quiet. In 2012, two years after taking over as BNF president, Boko expelled opponents Gabriel Kanjabanga and Lemogang Ntime from the BNF. Boko was tackling an issue of indiscipline within the party, something that keeps cropping up under his leadership. Boko says as a leader he doesn’t want members who air the party’s dirty linen in public. He recently revealed at the BNF’s July congress that he prefers a member who takes him head on in closed corridors away from the public eye.
He also said a member who attacks him or the party in public unleashes the other side of him. Just like Masisi, Boko is one thick-skinned leader who do not react and attack every time they are criticised. Since Saleshando started attacking Boko and his leadership in public, Boko rarely responds to the attacks but instead chooses to explain some of the decisions in a calm manner.
Masisi similarly before the leaked audio in which he was bashing former president Ian Khama, he had never responded to Khama’s attacks on his person in public or the media. Considering that Masisi’s outburst was never intended for the public’s ears, the latter just like Boko prefers matters that are dealt with in closed sessions, one could say. The two don’t publicly show that they take issues so personally. Both Masisi and Boko have found it disciplined in the way they communicate, only speaking publicly when they have thought through exactly what they want to say and why they want to say it.
Boko credits his long time advisor, Moeti Mohwasa as the person who has managed to keep him composed when he was about to explode at times. Furthermore, both Masisi and Boko want to remake their parties in their own image so public attacks by their own members undermine that. Speaking of image, Boko says most of these demeaning words from their members go to the same voters they want to convince to vote for the UDC in 2024. “What Saleshando and Kekgonegile did was put down the UDC. What they did was equal to standing on the streets and ridiculing the UDC by even saying ‘we cannot replace President Masisi with another Masisi’,” Boko told the media in July after the UDC NEC took a decision to suspend Saleshando and BCP secretary-general Goretetse Kekgonegile. “This is unacceptable because we are the campaigners of the UDC who ask for people’s votes and we want to show Batswana the worth of the UDC,” Boko said.
In another realm, Masisi suspended then BDP’s Mogoditshane parliamentary candidate, Tshephang Mabaila from the BDP for five years following allegations that the latter influenced a motion of no confidence against him in 2018. Some of Mabaila’s offences included behaving in a grossly disorderly and unruly manner that might put the party name into disrepute and sowing seeds of discord. Both Masisi and Boko exert their domineering style of leadership to keep followers in line. Another similar quality about Boko and Masisi lies in their energetic and charismatic personalities. They are both dynamic and compelling public speakers. Whether they are orating at a political rally or a debatable press conference, both Boko and Masisi bring strong energy to their public appearances.
Boko, a human rights lawyer, has that boundless confidence as he spits out big Latin words which some characterise him as arrogance. Masisi, a former teacher is capacitated with oratory skills, which he uses efficiently to convince ‘Madomi’. BNF members like Boko’s stance and feel he would be able to fix a litany of problems which have been rocking their party since the time Otsweletse Moupo was president. As for Masisi, from the moment Masisi uttered that ‘Ke lelope’ speech in his home village of Moshupa many years ago, his formidable rhetorical skills were a vital component of his public persona and his political success.
President Masisi has Slumber Tsogwane as his vice while Boko for the longest time had Prince Dibeela as his vice at BNF. Masisi and Boko stand out because their deputies are people with little capacity for matching them in terms of the strength of public speaking. While it is debatable that oratory skills can actually change anyone’s mind it seems with Boko and Masisi people are attracted to their somewhat overconfidence.
Masisi and Boko have also used their incumbency as party presidents to bully opponents when given the platform. Masisi used incumbency to win the BDP chairpersonship twice before he became president. Masisi even used his position as president to scare off then BDP presidential aspirant, Pelonomi Venso-Moitoi in 2019. Boko for the longest time at BNF was not used to being challenged until recently when Dr Moatlhodi ‘Bucs’ Molatlhegi decided to take him on. Molatlhegi eventually lost because Boko used his incumbency to win. Even at the UDC, Boko has not called for an elective congress in over a decade since being at the helm, something that Saleshando says is undemocratic.
Perhaps unlike Masisi, who has kept Tsogwane on his side since 2018, Boko has had a number of deputies at the UDC over the last decade. Boko’s first deputy at the UDC was the late Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) founder, Gomolemo Motswaledi who passed away on the eve of the 2014 General Election.
AP’s Gaolathe was the second man to become Boko’s deputy at the UDC, but left the BMD to form AP following the 2017 infamous BMD congress in Bobonong. Following that, Saleshando then took over from Gaolathe when the BCP joined the coalition in 2017. Now Saleshando might be on his way out following the duo’s bitter spat. The incoming president of the newly arrived Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) will automatically assume the VP spot in the coalition. At the BNF, Boko for a long time had Dibeela on his side until they fell out. Dibeela initially wanted to challenge Boko for presidency, but ended up joining Molatlhegi’s team as the VP instead. Dibeela couldn’t even defend his VP position at the recent BNF Congress after failing to get nomination. Compared to Boko, Masisi has done himself justice by choosing someone who doesn’t challenge him in Tsogwane. Great leaders surround themselves with strong team members who are not afraid to challenge them when they’re wrong but that is not Masisi’ style. Boko has been accused of running the UDC alone, something he has publicly denied. The BCP accuses Boko of dictatorship and turning the UDC into ‘his private property’.
University of Botswana (UB) lecturer in politics and administrative studies, Dr Adam Mfundisi says the way the two men manage their political parties shows similar traits.
“Both are domineering and exploit incumbency status to outbox their competitors. Both unleash the political powers they have on their political rivalries or competitors. Both use structures, processes, resources, and practices within their political outfits to displace competitors. Both promote the cult of leadership where political power revolves around personalities,” he indicated.
Dr Mfundisi added that personality cult is contributing to the demise of the UDC. He pointed out that a people’s project must necessarily be people driven not leadership management and controlled. “UDC members must take over the coalition of political parties from the leaders who seem to be engaged in unending political warfare. If the top leadership is embroiled in factional infighting the coalition formation will not survive the conflagration. There is simmering discontent within the UDC mainly caused by lack of strategic leadership.”