Opposition cannot do away with cooperation

Mmegi Editor | Friday July 21, 2017 11:21

Batswana learnt from the four leaders that cooperation talks were concluded and the launch is scheduled for winter this year. This bold step by the opposition parties did not please everybody in the opposition bloc. It became clear that a certain faction within Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) was holding Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) at ransom.

It is common cause that this faction is opposed to the membership of the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) in the UDC. To achieve its mischief, this faction bought the Botswana Peoples Party (BPP) to fight its cause.

The BMD factions, as they have played out in the past two years or so, are highly corrosive to the success of the UDC. UDC needs a stable BMD for progress. It is clear that the BMD needs to go back to the boardroom and strike peace. If BMD factions continue, as it seems at the moment with Ndaba Gaolathe/Wynter Mmolotsi vs Gilbert Mangole/Nehemiah Modubule, the party will continue to derail progress at UDC level and that would cost both BMD and the UDC, ultimately. It is therefore crucial for the BMD leaders to put their differences aside for the sake of the organisation. Surely these men and women need to work together for both the BMD and the UDC and Batswana at large who have so much faith and hope in the BMD. If peace fails within the BMD, the elders and contracting partners should intervene to ensure unity in the BMD.

And UDC leaders should also deal with careerists within the moribund BPP who want to benefit when change happens. Some within this dead party think they can blackmail the UDC by threatening to withdraw from the alliance. This is the party that only managed to get one councillor countrywide. How can they demand eight parliamentary constituencies when they cannot even manage a council ward? What is wrong with the Motlatsi Molapisi-led outfit?

In fact, the BPP was very sensible during the talks, but that these outrageous demands were made by Molapisi so as to benefit a faction within the BMD, boggles the mind.

The craving for more constituencies is for them to put up some moneyed BMD members as candidates. In fact ,the negotiators did the BPP a favour by allocating it four constituencies, which they are all going to lose. The biggest winner in the cooperation talks is the BPP, which was allocated four seats, which they do not deserve. On a parting note, the opposition cooperation is what the doctor prescribed to rescucitate our democracy.

Today’s thought

“We have sacrificed our resources, time, energy and ideas for the UDC to be what it is today.” 

– Motlatsi Molapisi