Once before it looked like the Khama brothers might lose control of the Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) but a picture that just popped up on social media says otherwise. The picture, which was taken in South Africa on June 17, is of former president Ian Khama and his younger brother, Tshekedi, flanking and towering over Onalepelo Kedikilwe, the BPF candidate for the July 8 Serowe West by-election. The three Serowe men are standing on a balcony with sand-coloured marble floor tiles and fence-like railing and uniformly execute the late-time gesture which the party slogan verbally expresses as �Ke nako!� � time is up. In the background are two, differently-obscured, similar-design mansions whose cupolas taper off into the almost teal blue sky. In service of making a political statement at once subtle and unsubtle, all three are wearing mostly black but yellow-speckled attire, the latter colour being most highly concentrated in Khama�s via a button-down shirt worn open collar, T-shirt and baseball cap. To fully understand this picture, you need to peel back the various meanings with which it is layered. Just last month, BPF was mired in yet another round of what has become ritualistic rivalry. What was different about this round though was that it threatened to tear the party apart. A faction led by BPF president, Reverend Biggie Butale, appears to have massively overplayed its hand. It choreographed a special non-elective national congress which resolved that the current National Executive Committee (NEC) should remain in office until after next year�s general election. The other faction, which is led by Khama himself, was opposed to this congress and has been keen to stress that it was inquorate and for that reason, could not have made any legally valid resolutions. The resolution that Khama is most unhappy about is the one that preserves the current NEC until after the elections. Confident about trouncing Butale, Khama wants an elective congress at which he would run for president and take full control of a party that he formed in 2019 to execute a personal-political agenda. Khama�s faction has also done more than toy with the idea of forming a new party off BPF. Brand identity in the form of a name (Botswana Freedom Party), heraldric symbol (black-power salute), official colour (teal) and slogan (�A re chencheng�) as well as unofficial slogan (�Teal Nation�) have been crafted and at least by last month, a venue (Selebi Phikwe) had been identified for the launch event. However, as became evident when Khama was conferenced into a political rally in Serowe three weeks ago, the voting masses don�t want a new party. With the situation still being fluid, the plan has not been abandoned but has only been placed on an eye-level shelf, is periodically dusted off, shined and lovingly put back. All this happens as an all-important by-election looms in Serowe West. This happens after Tshekedi, who like Khama, is self-exiled in South Africa, absented himself from parliament for longer than the standing orders allow. There has always been understanding that BPF�s candidate needs Khama�s endorsement in order to have a fighting chance in the by-election. The message that the picture clearly communicates is that the Khama brothers support Kedikilwe. The other, more important message, is that they will be putting up a very fierce fight to ensure that he wins because his loss would show that Khama�s influence is waning in the BPF�s only stronghold. Resultantly, the very purpose for which he formed BPF (to oust President Mokgweetsi Masisi from office) would dissolve into nothingness. The enmity between the two men is such that if it could somehow be harnessed as an energy source, the long overdue retirement of Morupule A and B power plants (and dissolution of the Botswana Power Corporation) would finally happen. The BDP has announced a P3 million war chest but Khama can mobilise ten times that amount from his literal backyard in South Africa. It is unlikely the picture was taken where the security-conscious former army commander lives and our information is that he typically meets visitors far away from his secret temporary home. The background detail in the photograph could be a ruse to throw off those who take professional interest in his whereabouts. Khama�s hosts are deep-pocketed South African businesspeople and he has said during an interview with a Botswana radio station that it is easier to raise money in South Africa than in Botswana. There is another picture (taken on June 15 in Serowe and posted to the BPF Facebook page) that shows Kedikilwe and Butale sitting side by side during nominations for the by-election. If nothing else, being publicly seen with a BPF leader communicates a message of allegiance. So, where does Kedikilwe fall? The first part of the answer to that question is that Khama would never publicly lend political support to anyone in Butale�s faction. The second is that by hosting Kedikilwe in South Africa, donning party attire and posing for a PR-stunt picture with him, Khama was claiming Kedikilwe as his own. The picture sends a message to Serowe West voters as much as it does to Butale. Without Khama, BPF would have the absurdity of a multi-billion construction tender without a Chinese company as the main contractor. As Khama�s tribal subject, Kedikilwe knows that he can�t win the by-election without his paramount chief�s support. There is also absolutely no way Kedikilwe would not know that, in his basic nature, Khama is transactional. BPF sources say that Khama has bagged more than the Serowe West candidate. All along Butale�s strength has been his control of NEC but from his secret location in South Africa, Khama has been able to whittle away at that support. The result has been that Khama now controls NEC and has moved to assert himself in typically dramatic fashion. That explains the recent, General Khama-backed but High Court-disrupted coup plot in which Butale was suspended by the NEC and has been temporarily reinstated by way of a court order.