Awkward questions raised on election outcome open wounds of national disunity and division

By now the outcome of General Elections has been explained beyond any point
of usefulness.

It was an expulsion of the Umbrella for Democratic Change, including as it
turned out by its members.

The message was simple; go away UDC and only come back such time when you
have fully sorted yourself.

People resorted to smart voting as a way to save themselves and their
country.

All the good guys like Alliance for Progressives became collateral damage.

The intention was to keep the UDC and their baggage at bay. That was too
important and could not be risked by trying to navigate some AP candidates
in. They would have to wait until such time that the immediate monster and
the danger it posed were all disposed of.

Put into context it all had to do with boundary crossing by the UDC leader.
The man is drenched in cynicism.

Many wondered if it had to do with ego, or just a deep-seated knowledge of
self-inadequacy.

Right from the day he started the campaign to the presidential debates he
refused to conform.

He exuded an invincible self-worth that was a turn-off to too many people
that were looking for a real human being. He lacked humility. And showed not
a slightest self-effacing attribute.

His extravagance repelled many.

It was a risky strategy that in the end backfired big time.

It has also not been a clean sail for the BDP.

The BDP has been chased out of Serowe and the surrounding constituencies –
all the three constituencies taken by Botswana Patriotic Front. President
Mokgweetsi Masisi has since likened BPF to a feudal outfit. He’s not
altogether too far off the mark in his description given the party’s
outlook, posture and makeup.

Its patron saint is a tribal demagogue who only recoils to his Serowe
hideout only when he feels the heat.

In the Ngami and Okavango areas BDP was literally wiped off the phase of the
earth. It was a clear result of Botswana Congress Party joining the UDC.

In Tonota it is almost in a coma, as a poorly coordinated UDC campaign was
able to carry the day.

In Nkange the non-stop push by Botswana Congress Party also paid off.
The BDP had a hard run in Bobirwa and eventually lost it, again to the BCP.

In both the Tswapong constituencies, put together the BDP’s traditional
heartland, the party was severely rattled. It lost one and kept the other.

For the first time since 1965, the BDP lost Tonota as they did with Palapye,
Shoshong and Mahalapye.

The truth is that overall, the BDP has continued to lose ground. And
regaining the lost swaths will not be easy, unless the BDP government mounts
an extraordinary service delivery in its campaign pledges.

They have won all of Gaborone and all of Kgatleng. But these are
traditionally very tenuous constituencies that cannot be relied upon by any
party for long term planning.

The recklessness on the other side has meant that the BDP was able to secure
a pact with many voters.

The BDP won elections not because of any inherent abilities of its leaders,
but because people were genuinely horrified by the triumvirate of Boko,
Khama and Moti at the UDC.

Voters looked at this trio and decided that this was an opposition that
deserved to lose.

A spontaneous and totally uncoordinated view was that the opposition, at
least as currently weaved deserved to lose.

The 2019 General Election was not BDP’s to win. Rather it was UDC’s to lose.

At the beginning it was all there for UDC’s taking. Along the way and
towards the end events conspired against.

Against a government that struggled to find a footing, all the people saw
was an opposition that would send the economy of the country to ruins.

In the end the UDC failed a winning test on account of a combination of
Boko, Khama and Moti – an unholy trinity many dreaded for its instinctive
underhand motives.

UDC lost because voters felt that the party was under a grip of
untrustworthy trio who were in it for altogether unclean reasons.

They were not a kind anybody could trust to do a deal with.

Up until the last minute, Boko was met with a lot of enthusiasm at UDC
rallies.

But the silent majority watched in disdain at what they saw playing out.
They were not convinced on competence, maturity, character and even
integrity.

For all those who wanted the mining industry to continue with minimal
disruption Boko’s words a few days before elections when he participated at
the presidential debate were unnerving, unsetting and truly concerning.

Faced with accusations that it does not know what to do to get the economy
working again, the UDC opted to go for something even more ruinous; P3000
minimum wage, P2500 allowance, P1000 old age pension and all the crass. It
was expenditure, expenditure and more expenditure. There were no strategic
policy choices.

Their plan, if it was to work would require massive borrowing by Government,
multiple raises in taxes and a depletion of whatever reserves the country
has hitherto used as a buffer.

Yet when cornered to account for their economic prospectus one UDC leader
after another hopped from one table to the next – totally unable to say how
they intended to raise money needed for that expenditure. They simply never
achieved a cut-through moment.

Their economic prospectus literally threatened to undo all that which the
country had achieved over the years. For a majority of voters, including
loyal UDC supporters it was too much to bear. They opted for safety first.

UDC, we cannot harp on the point strong enough, was led by a man who voters
could not trust, no matter how hard they tried. To make matters worse the
party manifesto was a childish prospectus that promised flowers in a desert
– a latter day version of Alice in Wonderland.

The Botswana National Front which is part of the UDC had for many years
promised equality, justice and a fairer society. Yet when the time came to
put a UDC government into power many BNF supporters curdled away, turned off
by extravagance they were seeing among their leaders. They could not believe
that their party was led by someone who saw nothing wrong hitting a campaign
trail that had in it a jet, a chopper, multiple limousines and an assortment
of South African number plated luxury cars. To them it looked obscene.

Something was not right. The first question was: Who was paying for all
these?

Their assessment of the whole thing evoked a shameful betrayal of the ideals
they had espoused for many years.

It is wrong to blamer the voters. It is UDC that turned its back against the
people who most needed change when it most mattered to them.

UDC leaders’ obsession with luxury also made people very suspicious. Also
uncomfortable for many people was the lack of humility and the use of
obscene language in public.

Sadly, that culture has continued among them even after elections, including
in parliament. Clearly no lessons have been learnt.