Elsewhere in this edition, we carry a story that suggests that opposition Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) leadership initiated a move to go to South Africa to negotiate a peace deal with the party’s patron and former president Ian Khama who is alleged to be readying himself to take over the presidency of the party.

The move by Biggie Butale-led BPF administration to strike a peace deal with Khama who was reputed to be on the verge of forming a splinter party might salvage the opposition party that was destined for a major break up. There were threats purportedly made by supporters of Khama who wanted him to decamp from the BPF with all his supporters literally leaving just a shell of the party with Butale.

Khama is believed to the thread that is holding the BPF together.

Twice, the Khama faction was reportedly set to meet in Selebi-Phikwe to finalise its move to form a new party, but the meetings were postponed without explanation.

We hear this was the result of efforts to smoke a peace pipe between the factions of Butale and the one led by Khama.

There was even a reported attempt by the Khama faction to allegedly adopt the Real Action Party (RAP) by buying its status so that they don’t endure the long and tedious process of forming a new political party.

Reports that Butale and his leadership including some party legislators and party elders have swallowed their pride and taken a trip to South Africa to meet Khama is a semblance of seriousness on the part of the BPF family to end differences that existed between the party factions. And for Khama to have accepted proposals by the Butale axis is a sure sign of maturity as peace can hardly come without engaging each other.

Butale’s overtures of pardoning some operatives of the BPF, who were initially suspended from the party, is another effort to find elusive peace in the party that was already torn asunder by factionalism that was threatening to spill out of control.

The intervention came at the right time when the nation was waiting with bated breath for the birth of the BPF splinter party.

For the longest time, the BPF was so pregnant that the birth of its offspring was long over due.

Politicians that broke away from the ruling party in 2019 formed the BPF.

They know better the challenges of forming and establishing a formidable party. Without internal peace, chances of any organisation surviving are slim.