AP lends support to BCP in Moselewapula
Lebogang Baingapi | Monday July 25, 2022 06:00
A few months back, the BCP and AP attracted backlash from some sections of the public after the former decided to contest the Bophirima by-election outside its parent organisation, the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC).
The BCP reasoned that it took the decision to go it alone at Bophirima after another affiliate of the UDC, the Botswana National Front (BNF), elbowed it out of the ward it believed was rightly its own.
On the other hand, the BNF dismissed such a claim saying that the Bophirima ward is/was theirs, which situation caused the already toxic relationship between the BCP and BNF to reach new heights. While the BCP is an affiliate of the UDC, the AP has on the other hand, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the UDC, a tripartite coalition, which also includes the BNF, the Botswana People’s Party (BPP) and the Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF), to contest all by-elections as one bloc until the 2024 general election.
However, the UDC made the BCP/AP team eat humble pie after its (UDC) candidate managed to dethrone the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) from the ward. The real test for the BCP/AP axis will come on July 30, when they slug it out with the UDC and the BDP. The Moselewapula ward is up for grabs following the death of councillor Reuben Ketlhoilwe who was a BCP cadre.
The by-election will take place after opposition parties save for the Real Alternative Party (RAP), BPF and BPP had just held their elective congresses over the President’s Day holidays. The congresses also took place when issues of mistrust, character assassinations and self preservation have reached their climax, which posture was on full display during the congresses.
In addition, it would occur in the aftermath of the suspensions of Dumelang Saleshando and Goretetse Kekgonegile, president and secretary-general of the BCP, in that order. The duo was suspended from the UDC for allegedly bringing its name into disrepute.
The suspension happened after their fallout with the UDC over governance issues within the “People’s Project”. In addition, the Moselewapula by-election will take place after the BCP congress resolved to expel five Members of Parliament (MPs) who defied the party’s directive to not participate in the UDC parliamentary caucus that was held on July 10 or any subsequent caucuses intended to deal with any matter affecting Saleshando until after the direction the party conference scheduled for July 15-18 decides. The MPs were said to be sympathetic to the BNF president, Duma Boko. However, the MPs refute the allegation and say they attended the UDC caucus in good faith because they were voted to Parliament under the banner of the UDC and not BCP.
When addressing the media during its congress over the President’s Day holidays, the vice president of the AP, Wynter Mmolotsi, revealed that their congress has given the party’s Central Committee (CC) the green light to lend its weight behind the BCP in Moselewapula. “Our members (delegates) have given us the mandate to support and work with the BCP in the Moselewapula by-election,” Mmolotsi responded when asked which party the AP will support for the Moselewapula by-election. Pictures of Saleshando and Mmolotsi are now circulating on social media platforms showing them busy campaigning in Moselewapula – a scenario which will fuel further speculations that it is only a matter of time before the BCP dumps the UDC and strike a working relationship with the AP.
The opposition and ruling BDP draw their following from unemployed youths, workers in the informal sector, business sector and civil servants amongst others who are suffering from the current economic malaise. It now remains to be seen who between the BCP, UDC and BDP will mostly appeal to these demographics in the midst of the recent increase in inflation, fuel and transport prices among others. However, it is a historically well-known fact that the BDP performs dismally in by-elections only to convincingly defeat the opposition during the general elections.
The opposition blames an unbalanced electoral environment for their perennial losses against the BDP in the general elections. It also points an accusatory finger at the ‘lopsided political environment that favours the BDP, the BDP’s illegal appropriation of state resources and use of state media to canvas for votes’, among a plethora of factors for the status quo. Commenting on the issue of the AP congress giving it the go ahead to back the BCP in Moselewapula, political analyst professor Zibani Maundeni, says AP’s congress decision is an indication of the level of mistrust that is existing within the UDC. In the same vein, Maundeni says that the cooperation between the BCP and AP, which previously happened in Bophirima, is also an indication that the BCP is just buying time to leave the UDC to work with like-minded opposition parties like the AP.
“The BCP has no commitment to remain in the UDC because it feels unwanted. The BCP should give the AP the guarantee that they can conducively work together,” Maundeni opined. Asked what will be at stake should the BCP/AP axis lose the Moselewapula by-election, the political observer stated that politicians are not afraid of losing elections on principle. “The BCP and AP are just testing the political waters.
They are testing if their partnership can work and care less about losing,” Maundeni opines. The matter of the BCP bolting out of the UDC and trashing out a working relationship with the AP and other opposition parties that share the same values gained more traction during the recent BCP and AP congresses. In fact, the BCP and AP were already holding cooperation talks before the congresses.
Ironically, the AP congress resolved that cooperation negotiations should be concluded by December 2022 while the BCP said that the negotiations should be concluded within six months with the hope that the toxic environment within the UDC will by then have changed for the better. However, there is public sentiment that voting the BCP/AP axis vis-à-vis UDC at Moselewapula will be the bellwether of Botswana's voting behaviour now and in future.