- As things stand, the Umbrella for Democratic Change is a powder keg waiting to ignite. The Midweek Sun’s JOE-BROWN TLHASELO demonstrates why behind the colourful façade of confidence and vibrant sloganeering, is a political coalition on a sickbed.
Surely the beleaguered Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) is a smouldering political powder keg waiting to ignite. Behind the colourful façade of vibrant sloganeering and a show of confidence in the prospects of the party doing well in the imminent October general election, is actually a movement on a sickbed.
Uncertainty reigns supreme within the once mighty blue and white political machine that could now be boasting six political parties – Botswana National Front (BNF); Botswana Congress Party (BCP); Alliance for Progressives (AP); Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD), Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) and Botswana People’s Party (BPP) – on the verge of taking over the reins of power from the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) that itself has been a political movement on terminal decline.
Yet the leaders manning the UDC could not even muster collective motivation to soldier on with the project to unseat the moribund ruling party whose disdain for true democratic tenets now borders on arrogance – perhaps motivated themselves, by the certainty of the opposition failing to knock them off their perch into the next election cycle.
As things stand, the hope of the people; the people’s project; the blue train; the widely touted alternative, is crumbling. With a leadership that is not even sure if it is going or coming, the coalition is currently at war with itself.
Some coalition partners – BCP and BPF – as well as some individual activists have chosen to jump off the decelerated train in order to map out their own paths towards a utopic Botswana, while those who remain inside are doing things their own way, disregarding what has been prescribed.
For instance, some remaining members of the UDC have chosen to blatantly disregard the order made by the leadership on constituency allocation among the coalition partners. The emerging trend in this instance is that of defiance and protest against a leadership that has been labelled 'vindictive' and acting on emotions rather than on logic and reality on the ground.
This is even more pronounced in the simmering tensions that have seen some members of the BNF boldly demonstrating through acts of defiance, that they will not accept some allocations of wards and constituencies as they feel that their party is the more suited to contest where other parties have been deployed.
A case in point is in Molepolole South, where the BNF’s Dr Tlamelo Mmatli and his many followers believe the UDC leadership erred in allocating the constituency to AP’s Shima Monageng. The situation now is such that both candidates are continuing to stage parallel campaigns under the UDC, causing confusion on the voters.
A similar scenario is playing itself out in the Mmopane-Metsimotlhabe constituency where the BNF’s Gilbert Watshipi strongly believes he should have been chosen to represent the UDC instead of Pushie Manyeneneng of the AP. The two candidates too, have launched parallel campaigns under the banner of the UDC, with Manyeneng insisting she is the rightful candidate by instruction of the UDC leadership.
The trend of parallel campaigns by two UDC members extends to not only other constituencies across the country, but also to council wards. For instance, the internal war is on another level at the Selokwane ward in Tlokweng, where Kedibonye Batlang of the BNF and Ontiretse Bogatsu of AP are each posting campaign flyers under the banner of UDC.
Similarly, in Palapye’s Mmaphula West ward, Onkabetse Magibisela of AP and Bafedile Ben of the BNF are calling themselves UDC candidates in equal measure.
This UDC double candidacy is also in Mahalapye East, Tswapong, Tonota among others, where the most disgruntled seem to be members of the BNF who collectively argue that they worked their constituencies from as way back as 2015 when AP was not a part of the UDC.
In other areas such as Kgatleng East, the feeling was that the BNF’s Obakeng Matlou was the more likely to win for the UDC than Nono Kgafela of the BPP, as with Lawrence Tshipana of the BNF in Mahalapye East. Tshipana has since abandoned his candidacy while Matlou went even further to dump both the BNF and UDC.
Insiders say the defiance is actually a protest act against the leadership, specifically Duma Boko, whom the disgruntled say is a vindictive person. The general feeling within the party is that through the allocation of wards and constituencies, Boko was out to punish anyone who crossed him in the past, by making sure they do not get a chance to stand for elections, something the UDC spokesperson Moeti Mohwasa has since dismissed as false.
He denied the notion that Boko is a vindictive person, citing members whom he said were working with Boko even though they were in different camps for the BNF leadership elections.
“What we know is that Cde Duma Boko has and continues to work with people who in the past even insulted him,” Mohwasa said, adding that if Boko was vindictive he would not be working with such people. He added that Boko was not even involved in allocating constituencies but that he was called in to break the deadlock of constituency allocations.
However, information gathered by this publication emphasised that aspiring UDC candidates from the BNF, who in the past supported the candidacy of Bucs Molatlhegi and Prince Dibeela against Boko and his preferred candidates in the BNF leadership elections, were never going to be allowed to contest elections. Even those who may have publicly differed with him were never going to be spared, insiders say. Which is why a number of the concerned constituencies were long awarded to BPF and AP even before they joined the UDC - and that is how AP was attracted away from the initial coalition with the BCP, because at the time they were being courted, they were already told which constituencies were available to them.
In Tlokweng where Phenyo Segokgo eventually won the BNF primary elections against the preferred Kenneth Segokgo, no other party in the coalition had shown interest in the constituency, forcing the BNF to call for primary elections.
Those close to the BNF leadership claim that had AP or any other party shown interest there, with Phenyo the only BNF person interested, the constituency would have been given away to spite the former South East District Council Chairperson. His victory therefore, it is revealed, has hurt the BNF heirarchy who had hoped Kenneth won it instead. Revelations emerge that such calculated allocations especially those made even before AP and BPF joined the UDC, are the ones that annoyed the lot of BNF activists who eventually dumped the party, feeling that the leadership was working with members in bad faith.
The departure of the likes of former Youth League leader Resego Kgosidintsi, former Women's Wing leader Dr Bonang Nkoane, Owe Mmolawa and Edward Tswaipe among others, shocked many as these were well-known defenders of the party in the past, yet it is the style of leadership of the party that is blamed for their unceremonious exit - including Matlou and Tshipana's decision to also stop his party activities.
Watshipi and Matlou are well-known to have supported Molatlhegi against Boko, and insiders point to that act as having influenced the instruction to BNF’s constituency negotiators inside the UDC to give away their constituencies to AP and BPP, essentially ensuring the two are denied any chance to go to Parliament.
The same was done to BNF’s Secretary General Ketlhalefile Motshegwa, who defeated Boko’s man in the BNF elections, Moeti Mohwasa. Motshegwa had all along been working the ground in Mmadinare constituency under the UDC, only to be shocked when the constituency was allocated to the BPF candidate to represent the UDC.
Many had been shocked that a whole Secretary General of a contracting partner party in the UDC was not fielded anywhere, while his counterparts had been given priority for constituencies. When the BPF recently dumped the UDC, there was no obvious candidate to give the Mmadinare constituency to, forcing the UDC to give it back to Motshegwa, who had chosen not to fight Boko the way the likes of Matlou, Watshipi and Mmatli did.
Although his decision not to protest is seen as the reason he was given back the constituency, it is further believed that Motshegwa’s more docile stance was influenced by the union – Botswana Landboards, Local
Authorities and Health Workers Union (BLLAHWU) - through which he makes ends meet, with the union openly supportive of everything BNF, including its leader as well as the UDC.
Motshegwa had put up face, insiders say, making it look like he was acceding and making way for the BPF for the greater good of the UDC, when in fact he was given no choice by his employer union where he serves as Secretary General. Beneath all that show of a team player, was a man unhappy with what he too perceived as an act of vindictiveness. He now has his constituency back and has continued where he had left off in mobilisation of voters to back regime change with the UDC. As for Arafat Khan in Molepolole North, who along with the likes of Matlou had been instrumental in Motshegwa's victory against Mohwasa in the BNF elections, the party leadership took a lenient view, seeing that Khan was able to mend bridges with those he hurt. It is for this reason he has also not been punished by having his constituency given to another party in the UDC.
As if the constituency allocation saga is not enough source of instability within the UDC, the AP could be on their way out of the coalition too. There is a general feeling by the AP membership, that the UDC leadership is not committed to resolving the cases where some BNF activists are refusing to make way for AP where the latter has been deployed.
The purple movement has since called for an emergency Central Committee meeting where such matters as constituency and ward allocation, as well as others relating to the UDC, are going to be discussed. All AP’s council and parliamentary candidates have been asked to attend the meeting, where regional structures are going to report on what has been happening in their areas.
The outcome of the meeting could see the AP leadership revisit the UDC for an amicable resolution, although some in the AP are said to be so fed up that they would prefer to follow the BPF and BCP out of the coalition. Should that happen, the UDC will remain a coalition of only the BNF and BPP, something that could eventually lead to the UDC performing dismally in the coming elections.
Speaking on these matters with The Midweek Sun, Motshegwa expressed regret at what has been happening at the UDC especially with disputes over allocated wards and constituencies. While AP Vice President Wynter Mmolotsi preferred not to comment on the matter when asked, Motshegwa explained that disputes such as those in Mmopane-Metsimotlhabe and Molepolole South should not be happening as officially, the BNF has not fielded anyone there on behalf of the UDC.
“Those constituencies were allocated to AP, but it is a dicey issue as some of these candidates can easily say they were asked by UDC structures in their constituencies to stand, in which (case) the UDC is best placed to intervene, not the BNF. However, a Task Force has been set up to go find out the issues of contention with a view to address them,” Motshegwa said.
All in all, it would appear that the UDC is a coalition without peace, even made worse by revelations that the movement is struggling to mobilise funds for campaigns. With only a couple of months before the elections, they are still foraging for ideas from the voters in order to formulate their manifesto.
And then there is the uncertainty of the AP going into the elections still a partner in the coalition. The last straw for AP, insiders reveal, was when the UDC leader Boko failed to come an launch AP President Gaolathe Ndaba, a whole UDC Number Two.
As such ailments continue to emerge within the once mighty blue train, the BDP and the BCP can only look on with glee, assured that a number of protest votes against the UDC by its own members, will go their way. It is a fact that in some areas such as Kgatleng East, Molepolole South and Mmopane-Metsimotlhabe, some BNF members will not vote a UDC candidate imposed on them. In the meantime, the UDC is failing to reprimand the likes of Watshipi and Dr Mmatli for their defiance, because on the ground, they command popular support and the leadership is afraid of the backlash that could spell political doom for the UDC in the concerned constituencies.
Surely the beleaguered Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) is a smouldering political powder keg waiting to ignite. Behind the colourful façade of vibrant sloganeering and a show of confidence in the prospects of the party doing well in the imminent October general election, is actually a movement on a sickbed.
Uncertainty reigns supreme within the once mighty blue and white political machine that could now be boasting six political parties – Botswana National Front (BNF); Botswana Congress Party (BCP); Alliance for Progressives (AP); Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD), Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) and Botswana People’s Party (BPP) – on the verge of taking over the reins of power from the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) that itself has been a political movement on terminal decline.
Yet the leaders manning the UDC could not even muster collective motivation to soldier on with the project to unseat the moribund ruling party whose disdain for true democratic tenets now borders on arrogance – perhaps motivated themselves, by the certainty of the opposition failing to knock them off their perch into the next election cycle.
As things stand, the hope of the people; the people’s project; the blue train; the widely touted alternative, is crumbling. With a leadership that is not even sure if it is going or coming, the coalition is currently at war with itself.
Some coalition partners – BCP and BPF – as well as some individual activists have chosen to jump off the decelerated train in order to map out their own paths towards a utopic Botswana, while those who remain inside are doing things their own way, disregarding what has been prescribed.
For instance, some remaining members of the UDC have chosen to blatantly disregard the order made by the leadership on constituency allocation among the coalition partners. The emerging trend in this instance is that of defiance and protest against a leadership that has been labelled 'vindictive' and acting on emotions rather than on logic and reality on the ground.
This is even more pronounced in the simmering tensions that have seen some members of the BNF boldly demonstrating through acts of defiance, that they will not accept some allocations of wards and constituencies as they feel that their party is the more suited to contest where other parties have been deployed.
A case in point is in Molepolole South, where the BNF’s Dr Tlamelo Mmatli and his many followers believe the UDC leadership erred in allocating the constituency to AP’s Shima Monageng. The situation now is such that both candidates are continuing to stage parallel campaigns under the UDC, causing confusion on the voters.
A similar scenario is playing itself out in the Mmopane-Metsimotlhabe constituency where the BNF’s Gilbert Watshipi strongly believes he should have been chosen to represent the UDC instead of Pushie Manyeneneng of the AP. The two candidates too, have launched parallel campaigns under the banner of the UDC, with Manyeneng insisting she is the rightful candidate by instruction of the UDC leadership.
The trend of parallel campaigns by two UDC members extends to not only other constituencies across the country, but also to council wards. For instance, the internal war is on another level at the Selokwane ward in Tlokweng, where Kedibonye Batlang of the BNF and Ontiretse Bogatsu of AP are each posting campaign flyers under the banner of UDC.
Similarly, in Palapye’s Mmaphula West ward, Onkabetse Magibisela of AP and Bafedile Ben of the BNF are calling themselves UDC candidates in equal measure.
This UDC double candidacy is also in Mahalapye East, Tswapong, Tonota among others, where the most disgruntled seem to be members of the BNF who collectively argue that they worked their constituencies from as way back as 2015 when AP was not a part of the UDC.
In other areas such as Kgatleng East, the feeling was that the BNF’s Obakeng Matlou was the more likely to win for the UDC than Nono Kgafela of the BPP, as with Lawrence Tshipana of the BNF in Mahalapye East. Tshipana has since abandoned his candidacy while Matlou went even further to dump both the BNF and UDC.
Insiders say the defiance is actually a protest act against the leadership, specifically Duma Boko, whom the disgruntled say is a vindictive person. The general feeling within the party is that through the allocation of wards and constituencies, Boko was out to punish anyone who crossed him in the past, by making sure they do not get a chance to stand for elections, something the UDC spokesperson Moeti Mohwasa has since dismissed as false.
He denied the notion that Boko is a vindictive person, citing members whom he said were working with Boko even though they were in different camps for the BNF leadership elections.
“What we know is that Cde Duma Boko has and continues to work with people who in the past even insulted him,” Mohwasa said, adding that if Boko was vindictive he would not be working with such people. He added that Boko was not even involved in allocating constituencies but that he was called in to break the deadlock of constituency allocations.
However, information gathered by this publication emphasised that aspiring UDC candidates from the BNF, who in the past supported the candidacy of Bucs Molatlhegi and Prince Dibeela against Boko and his preferred candidates in the BNF leadership elections, were never going to be allowed to contest elections. Even those who may have publicly differed with him were never going to be spared, insiders say. Which is why a number of the concerned constituencies were long awarded to BPF and AP even before they joined the UDC - and that is how AP was attracted away from the initial coalition with the BCP, because at the time they were being courted, they were already told which constituencies were available to them.
In Tlokweng where Phenyo Segokgo eventually won the BNF primary elections against the preferred Kenneth Segokgo, no other party in the coalition had shown interest in the constituency, forcing the BNF to call for primary elections.
Those close to the BNF leadership claim that had AP or any other party shown interest there, with Phenyo the only BNF person interested, the constituency would have been given away to spite the former South East District Council Chairperson. His victory therefore, it is revealed, has hurt the BNF heirarchy who had hoped Kenneth won it instead. Revelations emerge that such calculated allocations especially those made even before AP and BPF joined the UDC, are the ones that annoyed the lot of BNF activists who eventually dumped the party, feeling that the leadership was working with members in bad faith.
The departure of the likes of former Youth League leader Resego Kgosidintsi, former Women's Wing leader Dr Bonang Nkoane, Owe Mmolawa and Edward Tswaipe among others, shocked many as these were well-known defenders of the party in the past, yet it is the style of leadership of the party that is blamed for their unceremonious exit - including Matlou and Tshipana's decision to also stop his party activities.
Watshipi and Matlou are well-known to have supported Molatlhegi against Boko, and insiders point to that act as having influenced the instruction to BNF’s constituency negotiators inside the UDC to give away their constituencies to AP and BPP, essentially ensuring the two are denied any chance to go to Parliament.
The same was done to BNF’s Secretary General Ketlhalefile Motshegwa, who defeated Boko’s man in the BNF elections, Moeti Mohwasa. Motshegwa had all along been working the ground in Mmadinare constituency under the UDC, only to be shocked when the constituency was allocated to the BPF candidate to represent the UDC.
Many had been shocked that a whole Secretary General of a contracting partner party in the UDC was not fielded anywhere, while his counterparts had been given priority for constituencies. When the BPF recently dumped the UDC, there was no obvious candidate to give the Mmadinare constituency to, forcing the UDC to give it back to Motshegwa, who had chosen not to fight Boko the way the likes of Matlou, Watshipi and Mmatli did.
Although his decision not to protest is seen as the reason he was given back the constituency, it is further believed that Motshegwa’s more docile stance was influenced by the union – Botswana Landboards, Local
Authorities and Health Workers Union (BLLAHWU) - through which he makes ends meet, with the union openly supportive of everything BNF, including its leader as well as the UDC.
Motshegwa had put up face, insiders say, making it look like he was acceding and making way for the BPF for the greater good of the UDC, when in fact he was given no choice by his employer union where he serves as Secretary General. Beneath all that show of a team player, was a man unhappy with what he too perceived as an act of vindictiveness. He now has his constituency back and has continued where he had left off in mobilisation of voters to back regime change with the UDC. As for Arafat Khan in Molepolole North, who along with the likes of Matlou had been instrumental in Motshegwa's victory against Mohwasa in the BNF elections, the party leadership took a lenient view, seeing that Khan was able to mend bridges with those he hurt. It is for this reason he has also not been punished by having his constituency given to another party in the UDC.
As if the constituency allocation saga is not enough source of instability within the UDC, the AP could be on their way out of the coalition too. There is a general feeling by the AP membership, that the UDC leadership is not committed to resolving the cases where some BNF activists are refusing to make way for AP where the latter has been deployed.
The purple movement has since called for an emergency Central Committee meeting where such matters as constituency and ward allocation, as well as others relating to the UDC, are going to be discussed. All AP’s council and parliamentary candidates have been asked to attend the meeting, where regional structures are going to report on what has been happening in their areas.
The outcome of the meeting could see the AP leadership revisit the UDC for an amicable resolution, although some in the AP are said to be so fed up that they would prefer to follow the BPF and BCP out of the coalition. Should that happen, the UDC will remain a coalition of only the BNF and BPP, something that could eventually lead to the UDC performing dismally in the coming elections.
Speaking on these matters with The Midweek Sun, Motshegwa expressed regret at what has been happening at the UDC especially with disputes over allocated wards and constituencies. While AP Vice President Wynter Mmolotsi preferred not to comment on the matter when asked, Motshegwa explained that disputes such as those in Mmopane-Metsimotlhabe and Molepolole South should not be happening as officially, the BNF has not fielded anyone there on behalf of the UDC.
“Those constituencies were allocated to AP, but it is a dicey issue as some of these candidates can easily say they were asked by UDC structures in their constituencies to stand, in which (case) the UDC is best placed to intervene, not the BNF. However, a Task Force has been set up to go find out the issues of contention with a view to address them,” Motshegwa said.
All in all, it would appear that the UDC is a coalition without peace, even made worse by revelations that the movement is struggling to mobilise funds for campaigns. With only a couple of months before the elections, they are still foraging for ideas from the voters in order to formulate their manifesto.
And then there is the uncertainty of the AP going into the elections still a partner in the coalition. The last straw for AP, insiders reveal, was when the UDC leader Boko failed to come an launch AP President Gaolathe Ndaba, a whole UDC Number Two.
As such ailments continue to emerge within the once mighty blue train, the BDP and the BCP can only look on with glee, assured that a number of protest votes against the UDC by its own members, will go their way. It is a fact that in some areas such as Kgatleng East, Molepolole South and Mmopane-Metsimotlhabe, some BNF members will not vote a UDC candidate imposed on them. In the meantime, the UDC is failing to reprimand the likes of Watshipi and Dr Mmatli for their defiance, because on the ground, they command popular support and the leadership is afraid of the backlash that could spell political doom for the UDC in the concerned constituencies.
