UDC is the only option – Motswaledi

The Umbrella For Democratic Change (UDC) is the only option which can relieve Batswana from the oppression, manipulation and severe poverty suffered under the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP.

UDC secretary General Gomolemo Motswaledi was giving a keynote address at a rally held at Mahalapye Tshikinyega ward over the weekend. Motswaledi said the race would be between the BDP and UDC only..

The Botswana Movement For Democracy (BMD) president faulted the BDP for failure to come up with tangible solutions to escalating unemployment especially among the youth. He said instead the BDP leadership has been busy centralising the resources of the country among themselves and a few of their cronies. He gave an example of the developments taking place at the Central Business District (CBD) in Gaborone saying a majority of them do not belong to native Batswana.

The BDP government, he said, has failed to rescue the deteriorating education system, thereby plunging this country’s future into doom. He said BDP government lost the plot when they rubbished the idea of early education pioneer, Patrick Van Rensburg of the education with production concept. He added that our country has also lost dignity in the international community as the current BDP leadership had soured foreign relations. Another speaker at the rally Member of Parliament for Kgatleng West Gilbert Mangole said it is time for change as the BDP government has run out of ideas. Mangole urged the youth to spearhead change by registering to vote in large numbers.

He said it is clear that the BDP spend most of their time enticing the voters with short-term initiatives instead of sustainable means of living. Mangole brushed off the ‘poverty eradication’ programmes that are currently publicised by the BDP government. He said they are only populist tactics that will not improve the livelihood of the people. The legislator accused the BDP of intolerance to progressive ideas, citing the refusal by government to fund the ‘noble idea’ by Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) to set up a leather-manufacturing park that could have empowered a lot of people. Instead the BDP uses about P500 million every year on the unsustainable Ipelegeng while the leather manufacturing plant LEA only required a mere P250 million.

The UDC parliamentary hopeful for the area Moses Ntwaagae questioned the level of thinking of the BDP government for sound policy formulation. He said it is evident that there is lack of market for the so-called poverty eradication initiatives such as LIMID and Backyard Gardening projects. Botswana National Front (BNF) veteran Billy Makuku assured that his party is fully committed to the opposition cooperation model. This is contrary to other reports that BNF was never meant to join any party. Reciting the history of local opposition cooperation Makuku said BNF has in the past tried with others to unseat the BDP.

He said around 1985 the BNF joined forces with the Botswana People’s Party (BPP) and Botswana Progressive Union (BPU) to form the People’s Patriotic Front (PPF) but it collapsed. He added that before the current UDC efforts of opposition cooperation resurfaced when the Botswana Alliance Movement (BAM) was formed in 1993.