- We will tackle Khama as a political opponent rather than as an individual – Balopi
- Domkrag SG denies that attacking Khama is attacking BDP legacy
TEFO PHEAGE
Discrediting former president and long time leader of the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), Ian Khama, has emerged as an all-consuming issue for the ruling party.
The BDP has been hesitant to charge at Khama, aware that doing so may be construed as discrediting itself because Khama has been at the centre of the party like a monolith and was portrayed at a messiah by party leaders, including President Mokgweetsi Masisi.
But the BDP is reportedly fed up with the man who has no such considerations in his assault on the party that his father helped form in the 1960s and is ready to cut its political nemesis to size. A scathing attack on Khama’s credibility last week may signal the BDP’s departure from soft-pedalling on the ex-president. The incident was in response to another vitriolic assault on the BDP by Khama’s Botswana Patriotic Front.
“It is shocking that when the BDP is attacked nobody really cares but when the BDP responds many cry foul,” the Secretary General of the BDP, Mpho Balopi, said in an interview. “We have not formulated any strategy on Khama as an individual but we treat him as a member of the opposition like many others.”
Balopi said if Khama is found in a political whirlwind as a member of an opposition party, the BDP will not hesitate to respond accordingly. He disagreed with any notion that attacking Khama would by extension be tantamount to attacking the legacy of the party for which Khama was the head for a long time.
“He is in opposition now,” Balopi noted. “What do people expect? He is a member of a political formation and we treat him as such.”
Khama has never rested since his retirement as president and has devoted his time to discrediting his successor, Mokgweetsi Masisi, and the BDP..