Umbrella 'goes back to the drawing

EPHRAIM KEORENG
Staff Writer | Friday April 13, 2012 00:00

The Umbrella is made up of opposition parties, Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD), Botswana National Front (BNF) and the Botswana Peoples Party (BPP), whilst the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) that was expected to join them, has since broken ranks.

The Umbrella members are of the view that any model, especially the pact, which the BCP preferred over the umbrella, will not help the opposition to take power from the ruling party. Speaking in an interview yesterday, Umbrella communications head Moeti Mohwasa said that they want to work with parties through the umbrella, saying the pact has serious weaknesses.

'The pact has failed in the past. In Mochudi for example, the BNF and the BCP had agreed to cooperate in council but eventually the BCP ended up 'marketing' itself alone and teamed up with the ruling Botswana Democratic Party during the council chair elections; where the BDP took the chairperson's post while the BCP took the deputy chairperson's. However, if you look at the numbers combined, the BCP and the BNF councillors outnumber the BDP. A similar scenario took place in Selebi-Phikwe where the BCP once again teamed up with BDP and took the deputy mayor's post whilst the ruling party took the mayoral seat yet the combined opposition outnumbered the BDP,' he said.

Mohwasa also said that after the 2004 general elections, opposition leaders agreed that the Umbrella model is not sustainable, adding that the opposition now needs one big national brand to unseat the BDP.

'We can't unseat a party at national level through a model that has failed to work at local government level,' he said, referring to the pact model. In a media missive sent this week, Mohwasa said that in response to a national call to bring together all progressive forces under one banner and avoid vote splitting in the next general elections, the Umbrella leaders met last month end. 'The parties in the Umbrella noted the correspondence from the BCP, which basically indicated that it will not be part of this important national project,' he said. The Umbrella spokesman also said that though they were disappointed that the BCP opted out of the Umbrella, they would not respond to BCP 'attacks' on the Umbrella, as this would divert their attention from seeking a better life for Batswana.

He said having signed a declaration, which essentially commits the parties to the Umbrella II, they are now shifting gear to focus on issues of detail and it is expected that the three parties will have concluded consultations and adoption of the documents with their members by the end of May. This process will then be followed by the launching of the project to the nation; as the Umbrella leaders will soon be interacting with the leaders of different religious denominations, workers' unions, business and NGOs for briefings.

Mohwasa added that they would hold a workshop this month to finalise the documents that include the constitution, before they are passed on to the party structures for discussion and adoption.