Opposition must put its house in order

Mmegi Editor | Monday May 22, 2023 06:00

It seems no party is spared as political parties continue to be torn apart by internal strive just under the noses of voters.

It all started with one of the most promising coalition of parties, the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) partner, the Botswana Congress Party (BCP), dissenting with the parent party raising all sorts of trepidations against the UDC leader Duma Boko and condemning him for undemocratic tendencies especially unilateralism.

Whilst the BCP/UDC fracas seemed a manageable issue, last year the BCP concluded it was ready to exit the coalition. The decision was even sanctioned by the party’s special conference in Mahalapye. From the advent of Mahalapye meeting, former coalition partners stopped meeting and talking to each other for almost a year now.

Will these incessant fights not scare potential voters away from the promising UDC, the coalition of which even President Mokgweetsi Masisi confessed at a political rally recently that his party went into the 2019 General Election scared of a possible distress by the UDC partners as the coalition seemed equal to the task?

Now, when a newly crowned UDC member, the Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) was about to show its political prowess to the political market after ousting the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) in the Central District in 2019 following few months of its birth, the BDP splinter party is destined for a major split.

A faction led by former president, Ian Khama, is regrouping and meeting in Selebi-Phikwe to possibly form a new party, something that is likely to further compound opposition woes and even the objectives of the BPF itself. This comes after a court of law clarified that Biggie Butale was the rightful president of the BPF following hullabaloo raised by his nemesis led by Tshekedi Khama and his supporters who are advocating for his senior brother Ian to lead the BPF.

This is yet another drawback that might reverse political milestones gained by the BPF and its contribution to the coalition partnership in an endeavour to oust the ruling BDP.

As if that was not enough, another potential UDC coalition partner, the Alliance for Progressives (AP) is headed for trouble with a faction led by its former MP Sedirwa Kgoroba whose contention is that the party leadership was not ‘sincere’ when it pulled out of the talks with the BCP. The Kgoroba-led faction recently addressed a press conference where it alleged to be assembling party members in its preparation to bolt out and join the BCP.

These developments are really bad for the image of the opposition bloc especially that it (opposition) has been selling the story of unity and its desire to take over government.

Time is now that opposition parties should put their house in order if they want to be taken seriously by the voters especially that the 2024 General Election are just around the corner.

Today's thought

“Unity to be real must standthe severest strain without breaking”

– Mahatma Gandhi