At long last, the leaders of the UDC are waking up to the reality that there is something wrong with their party.
The Midweek Sun newspaper quotes Kesi Gobotswang, the deputy leader of the Botswana Congress Party and also an executive committee of the UDC saying there is a momentum towards fixing the ailing UDC.
The nation should be grateful for one thing: For the first time somebody inside the UDC is not trying to deflect attention of the calamity that has befallen the country’s official opposition.
People are anxiously waiting to give UDC the benefit of doubt. But they totally disapprove of what is happening inside the party.
We shall never know what would have become of the UDC government had the party won state power in 2019.
But from what we are seeing the optics are not reassuring.
The party has become a sickly old man of Botswana politics. And worse, there is a lot of back-biting which brings into scrutiny the question of stability.
The ruling Botswana Democratic Party is clearly in deep trouble, but the UDC is nowhere to capitalize on that.
The weekend’s retreat comes in the backdrop of big issues hanging over the nation.
For example, the country’s vaccination campaign is in shambles yet nobody from the opposition is even saying anything about it.
The vaccine purchase has been nothing short of a fiasco. Yet the official opposition is mum about it.
People are waiting to see if there is an alternative view from the government. But none is coming forward. It is a disappointing spectacle.
With vaccine diplomacy on the retreat as India battles a devastating outbreak within its shores, Botswana’s options are running short.
Some doses have arrived from China. But even then, getting them into the arms of the impatiently waiting nation is taken forever.
The country’s economy is sliding deeper into a hot furnace and the UDC does not seem in the bit worried. Instead, the party is busy with its internal shenanigans.
The UDC today is much different from the one after losing the 2014 General elections.
The momentum is gone. And there is not much anticipation and zilch expectation.
The level of dejection has something to do with the post-election petitions, the court cases, the drama and the losses. All those have taken a toll.
The losers feel like they have been thrown to the dogs.
Appearances can be deceptive.
The big loss in 2019 underplays the huge UDC potential.
In fact people who say 2019 was a failure for UDC do not understand Botswana’s electoral system.
Under the First-past-the-Post, Botswana’s electoral system is in effect a winner-takes-it-all.
It is not an ideal system. In fact it is woefully inadequate.
But it is the most effective electoral system so far known to mankind.
UDC numbers at the polls have for a long time now been growing non-stop. Even as it lost in 2019, its numbers reached an unprecedented pitch.
The UDC is not in power today because of Botswana’s constituency based electoral system.
Because of this system the party shed a number of constituencies it had won in 2014, even as overall share of the national vote grew.
Crucially, the UDC has gained a few new constituencies, especially in the northern parts of Botswana.
This means that growth of the UDC cannot be honestly refuted.
In fact the UDC has been the first motley crew of parties to unleash a revolution in Botswana politics.
Similar previous attempts had all failed dismally.
The success of UDC should be attributed to the mix of its leadership at inception and also a few years after.
The party had unconventional politicians – especially in Gomolemo Motswaledi who became the deputy leader at creation.
He was willing to forego the top spot in leadership to Duma Boko and settle for the second position.
This flexibility released the UDC from potentially toxic leadership contests that often derail and distract political organisations.
This decision alone by Motswaledi was a master stroke.
He immediately immersed himself in structurally building the organization.
That task really was his passion because he had skills with people. He was most effective in one to one meeting encounters.
And he understood the value of the leader staying in touch with followers.
After his death came in Ndaba Gaolathe. He was not as charismatic as Motswaledi.
But understood the value of staying honest.
Like Motswaledi he too was happy to remain under Boko’s shadow.
A systems man, Gaolathe was the man who had the pulse of the UDC.
At the height of their partnership, Boko only referred to him as a “guru.”
Boko – ever an arms-length man was too happy making his grand speeches and grand entrances.
In came the Botswana Congress Party.
Boko had made a calculation that his BNF needed the BCP more than any other party in order to get into power.
He was wrong.
The UDC brand from its inception was much larger than the sum of individual parties.
In getting the BCP into the UDC Boko was prepared to sacrifice anything and anyone, including his beloved right-handman, Ndaba Gaolathe.
Boko started talking and acting out of turn.
Never a gregarious animal to start with, Ndaba Gaolathe was left out in the cold as both formal and gossip meetings of UDC and BCP top brass went on without him. It was not long before he became a subject of those gossip meetings.
With time, to Duma Boko, Gaolathe became indispensable.
Ndaba held firm that the convenors who were the grandees of the UDC had to have a say into how the BCP could join.
The BCP hated this. And Boko for the first time said the conveners had no business in the UDC as they were not a structure inside the party.
He moved mountains and broke every convention to bring in the BCP – and at record time.
The BCP also had own designs. Their long term ambition was to wrestle the UDC from Boko.
They could see what a big political brand the UDC had become.
In the short-term the BCP goals included dislodging Ndaba Gaolathe from his position which in effect made overall strategy chief of the UDC.
With the assistance of Boko, they achieved that and then went on to isolate the Botswana Peoples Party which they never had much respect for, anyway.
Now the BCP Boko and the UDC have now gone full circle.
The two have fallen out big time.
The BCP is asking difficult questions.
They want a congress that would open up the leadership to a contest.
That means Dumelang Saleshando challenging Boko for UDC president.
This is making Boko and his BNF totally nervous.
They are not used to such demands.
In fact in their mind, this is not why they brought in the BCP.
Once again Boko is warming up to Gaolathe.
He remembers the warm and unfailing Gaolathe loyalty that served him so well until the BCP arrived inside the UDC tent.
Boko wants Ndaba Gaolathe back into the UDC.
His experience with the BCP has been a harrowing one.
In fact Boko wants a much more empowered Gaolathe back.
But there is one slight problem.
Today’s UDC is a much more weakened political outfit than the one Gaolathe unceremoniously left behind a few years ago. Relations within it are also much more toxic that he might not even recognise it when he walks into it.
