The deafening silence of pressure groups on the 2024 polls

Reminiscing over the 2014 election, pressure groups were seething with anger, fuming and livid with the frustration of their unmet needs under former President Ian Khama’s regime. Trade unions in particular were gatvol with Khama, following the industrial strike of 2011, they were hell-bent at punishing Khama and the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) at the 2014 polls.

So loathsome were the hearts of civil society, labour unions and other pressure groups who felt unseen and undermined by those at the helm of power. The request of the unions to their members was for them to deny the BDP votes in the elections. Ten years later, the once so loud revelers are now quiet as a heart that beats no more, their position unclear despite elections coming up later this year.