Cracks In The Umbrella Widening

Monitor Editor | Monday June 18, 2018 11:24

The opposition, after realising that tackling the BDP as individual opposition political party was too much of a mammoth task, decided to form an alliance, which they termed the UDC.

The UDC in their Website accessible at  HYPERLINK “http://www.udc.org.bw/home/” http://www.udc.org.bw/home/ clearly state: “The Umbrella for Democratic Change is a heartfelt response to the cries, pleas and conjugations of a nation in distress. For decades a divided opposition has given the BDP an undeservedly long lease on life. Parties pursued an agenda informed by the power play of sectarian interests. Then the people spoke. They spoke more loudly than they had ever done before. They expressed their yearning. They called for unity to pursue their agenda: change. The public sector strike and it’s clarion call for regime change was clear in its indignant eloquence. We responded and made solemn pledges to our nation. I and the other leaders of UDC have delivered on our pledges. We have kept our promise to Botswana. We have given you the Umbrella for Democratic Change.”

What an undertaking! And one is immediately forced to ask, what happened to that strong undertaking? Of recent different local publications have carried a variety of article on the UDC bickering about a variety of issues, some of which are so petty that even teenagers, who many believe are at the stage of discovering themselves, laugh off. 

Surprisingly, after so many years in existence having been formed in November of 2012, the UDC is still fighting over its constitution, constituency allocations, just to mention but a few.

Last year, the UDC  showed a lapse in leadership and judgement when they failed to resolve the Botswana for Democratic Change (BMD) infighting, which led to the birth of a new political party the Alliance for Progressives (AP).

The BMD, is a member of the UDC, and as such the UDC should have been quick to address the infighting, but instead they chose to watch from a distance until the fights reached a boiling point. In its defence, the UDC, claimed that it was allowing the BMD to work out its problems without interference. Really?

Now there seem to be an elephant of a problem in the room, which the UDC seem to be failing to overcome: the issues of constituencies. It appears member parties have started arguing over constituencies, which has the potential of rendering the coalition a big fat joke.

The worst ever campaign, and loss in the weekend Moshupa/Manyana by-election is a sure sign that UDC is at risk of losing goodwill, and regime change.