Let’s start with the UDC: they have a legitimate case for silence. First, the point in time in our electoral cycle is highly charged and it is no time to entertain very controversial matters you will not be able to resolve in the coming three months even if you wished to. This is especially so on matters that are held emotionally by part of the electorates. Say what you may, but political parties exist to win elections and will not risk speaking out on controversial matters whose net effect, given the timing, may be loss of elections. Either way, in good time they should pronounce their position on this matter.
The BDP and the BCP at times prove each a little extremist on the matter. The BDP traces this issue to independence: the founding fathers of the republic took a conscious decision to establish a country not balkanized on tribal basis. As such, at independence Setswana was adopted as a unifying language- and it is a fact that it is the one language understood by most people in Botswana. Thus, given tribal shenanigans that divided so many of African society that was both reasonable and desirable. And indeed it has served this country quite well for half a century. The promotion of languages and cultures one may say was then largely left to individual tribal groups to promote.