Internal feuding shrinks UDC power
Ryder Gabathuse | Monday April 4, 2022 10:43
The stand off between the two political giants has become toxic and is apparently destroying the cohesive force that had brought the opposition parties together when most needed. The UDC is a tri-party consisting the BCP, BNF and the Botswana Peoples Party (BPP).
For starters, the BCP is a breakaway party from the BNF and was conceived in 1998 post the volatile infamous Palapye meeting where 11 BNF legislators broke away from the Kenneth Koma-led BNF.
By all intents and purposes, the UDC is supposed to be a coherent force formed to unleash the power of united opposition parties working together with a common goal of removing from power one of Africa’s longest ruling parties.
The ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) has been in power since 1966. Since independence, 56 years ago, it has been so difficult for a single opposition party to easily remove the BDP from the seat of power. At best, opposition parties contesting against each other only perpetrated splitting of votes.
The UDC is the biggest opposition project to come out of our land, but already the ‘people’s project’ stands on shaky ground with its future looking uncertain with both the BCP and the BNF not keen to listen to each other and bury the hatchet. It looks like there have been simmering tensions between the duo (BCP and BNF) before they recently boiled over. Speculation is rife that the vacant Bophirima ward in the Gaborone Bonnington South constituency is simply used as a scapegoat while there are underlying issues troubling the coalition. The recent decision by the BCP to contest the Bophirima ward by-election outside the UDC arrangement is one of those surprises the party chose to stick to.
For the flamboyant Gaborone-based Advocate Duma Boko, the UDC and BNF president, it will be simply a motion of no confidence in his leadership should the BCP decide to pull out of the coalition for good, bringing back the bad memories of the Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD), which was finally expelled from the UDC.
In the 2019 general election, Boko sourced sponsorship that elevated the UDC campaigns in its endeavours to take the BDP head on.
If the opposition unity project fails, it would also mean that the BCP and the BNF with their hard-to-please crowds will maintain their rather ‘water-and-oil’ relationship they were previously known for. Issues of mistrust, which were common decades ago, seem to be fast creeping into the opposition ranks.
In 2017, the BMD, an offshoot of the ruling BDP, and a then member of the UDC, experienced a major split that saw the party president Ndaba Gaolathe and other executives expelled from the BMD and by extension from the UDC, by a faction led by Advocate Sidney Pilane. The expelled lot would later form the Alliance for Progressives (AP), which chose to operate outside the UDC formation. Interestingly, at Bophirima ward by-election, the AP has chosen sides and it is sticking with the BCP. The BCP/BNF saga could have metamorphosed into hatred or disrespect of some sort as media reports suggest. UDC legislators recently spurned Boko’s attempt to address them on pertinent issues in the absence of his deputy, Dumelang Saleshando who is also the Leader of Opposition (LOO) in Parliament. Saleshando is the BCP president. The alleged defiance depicts the absence of inner peace in the UDC.
At the moment, both the BCP and the BNF are not keen to give a clearer picture of the goings on within their ranks. They have instead chose to play the blame game whilst their relationship is deteriorating to all time low.
In a recent interview, BCP spokesperson, Mpho Pheko, squarely put the blame at the doorstep of the UDC president Boko, whom she was concerned that besides being an absentee landlord he preferred unilateralism even on important issues. For the UDC spokesperson, Moeti Mohwasa, he was not keen to comment on the developments at the UDC preferring to only talk about them post the Bophirima by-election.
Political analyst and academic, Adam Mfundisi acknowledges that the BCP is a strategic partner of the UDC coalition adding that together with the BNF, they form a strong and unshakable alliance capable of defeating the BDP, which is currently in tatters. He was quick to observe that if the BCP walks away without conflict resolution and without due diligence and considerations, it could receive the same wreath from voters.
“Conflict resolution mechanisms have to be designed to resolve the intractable problems between warring parties. If no resolution is found I foresee a possible split of the UDC culminating in two opposition coalitions,” Mfundisi, who is also University of Botswana (UB) lecturer in politics and administrative studies told Mmegi.
He cites a possible AP/BCP on one block and the Botswana Peoples Party (BPP)/BNF alliance on the other.
Mfundisi further posits that the BPF has to join possibly the former to consolidate grip of the northern Botswana. He suggests that the development will be a good thing for our growing democracy. Commenting on the leadership prowess of Boko, the UDC president, Mfundisi noted that the lawyer-cum-politician has his pros and cons.
He feels that Boko and Saleshando need to complement and supplement each other, further describing the duo as a formidable force as a collective. Mfundisi encourages the duo to forge a united front in unifying opposition forces. Strategic leadership according to the UB academic, demands visionary, exemplary, emotional intelligence, ethical and accountability behaviour.
He insists that without the BCP or BNF, the UDC would be limping. In his view, any split within the UDC formation would reverse the gains of the 2019 general election. He emphasised that effective communication with transparency is the antidote to the fractured relationship between the two powerful parties.
“Trust and confidence can be enhanced by continuous communication and dialogue. There is no substantive ideological differences between the BCP and the BNF, only clash of personalities and egos,” concluded Mfundisi.