Youth frenzy as UDC sweeps Gaborone
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Tuesday October 28, 2014 17:33
For one, the youth voted in large numbers in different areas. Botswana’s young and first time voters so well organised to a point that they had their own registration book to ensure that indeed they do vote. In the Gaborone Bonnington North, which the Umbrella for Democratic Party president, Duma Boko won with high numbers, by 2pm on Friday, the Limkokwing polling station, the youth registration card was showing that 75% of them had voted.
The same was happening at Morula, Marulamantsi and other wards in the Gaborone Bonnington South constituency, utterances such as “Re tsile go ba tanta”, were common.
Though election results came out late in different wards, the first to be announced was Mosekangwetsi, which seem to throw Ndaba Gaolathe supporters into frenzy. But the celebration was short-lived, as the figures from the next wards were not looking good for the high riding UDC. By 2.30am Saturday, UDC in that constituency had already won four wards that made youth to start singing even more.
But by 7 am, the UDC youth were back in the celebratory mood as was becoming clear that the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) was set to win only council of the six seats. Then the UDC members made motorcade to their parliamentary counting centre at Kgale Hill JSS, where despite not being allowed inside the school hall, they were not discouraged. They kept signing outside.
The singing went the whole, until 10 pm, when all went into frenzy as Gaolathe pulled one of the biggest wins, leaving BDP’s Botsalo Ntuane and Botswana Congress Party’s Abby Chengeta totally destroyed. When the result were announced, the choirs shouted and started singing, “Morena o ba etele bana botlhe baba ba lefifi”. Ndaba won with 6,646 against Ntuane’s 3,597 and 1,318 for Chengeta.
The Gaborone Bonnington South motorcade went on to join that of Gaborone Bonnington North constituency by Hillcrest English medium to Sir Seretse JSS where Boko’s win was becoming evident. There the singing continued into the night, where most of the UDC stayed for two days without sleep waiting anxiously for their president’s results. The results finally came in the wee hours of Sunday morning, and there was explosion. The celebrations could have easily been mistaken for the UDC assuming state power. And it was the same with the earlier results especially the other side of town, where UDC’s Phenyo Butale shocked the status quo by grabbing power from Botswana Congress Party president Dumelang Saleshando. In fact Gaborone seemed to have been on frenzy from the previous day when UDC’s Haskins Nkaigwa shocked many by grabbing Gaborone North from the BDP.