However charitable one might want to be to the, the growth of one-party politics in Botswana should be blamed on opposition.
Their conduct and general immaturity are to blame.
Some of the leaders in the opposition front scare the hell out of the voters on what just will become of them were they to be catapulted into state power.
I can already say what better is the ruling party.
But that is not the calculation the voter is making.
For a greater part the voter reaches the conclusion of better the devil you know.
The opposition has an obligation to take the lead in improving their internal governance structures as a way of allaying the voter’s fears.
Why for example have a majority of opposition parties not put in play an enforceable code either for leadership including Members of Parliament and Councilors?
The reason is simple: they do not want to be held accountable for anything.
Why for example has the Umbrella for Democratic Change not seen it fit to take their membership into confidence about the money they have been collecting over the years the years starting with the large amounts collected immediately after death of Gomolemo Motswaledi?
The reason is simple; the leadership is unaccountable and takes membership for granted.
Why for example has the Botswana National Front central committee not seen it befitting to tell members what has become of the money that was collected to build Kopano House?
The reason is simple: the leadership believes members can pop out money but not ask questions.
Voters who are not party members watch these things in silence and from a distance and get repulsed by them.
Is it any wonder that the opposition finds itself in a vicious cycle; unable to break the electoral sound barrier.
They have lost all of Gaborone which they blame on elections rigging.
They should look closer to home before coming up with more difficult to prove theories.
The current degradation of opposition is an effect of one-party state caused by the opposition itself.
The more one tries to scrutinize the intricacies of the last election, and also the results the more puzzled one gets at it all.
Just over a decade ago it was unthinkable that the Botswana Democratic party could easily take such constituencies like Jwaneng, Kanye, Lobatse and Gaborone.
Gaborone today has five constituencies.
They have all been painted red.
At least on that piece alone, there is sufficient evidence of total repudiation of everything that Dr Kenneth Koma stood for and worked so hard to build over such a long time.
The fact that even the leader of opposition lost his seat to the BDP is shocking general. And for him it must have felt like a moment of total rejection.
It will no doubt take time to heal.
Under Kenneth Koma, the opposition BNF was very adroit and resilient.
Can we say the same today? Not in a long shot!
What we are witnessing is not only the takeover of large swathes of traditional opposition heartlands by the BDP, it is also a growing sophistry of the voter who feels no attachment to any party per se.
It also marks the growth of casino capitalism in our politics.
The rejection of UDC in the last election, was mainly an expression of a revulsion of Duma Boko’s open cuddling with the South African billionaires.
Strictly speaking, it was not so much a show of affection for Mokgweetsi Masisi and his BDP.
The result of 2019 General elections signaled the hitherto undetected emotional intelligence on the part of the voter.
There was not emotional hysteria on the voter.
The slide into a one-party state should be blamed squarely on the opposition.
The last decade was clearly epochal.
It was a decade of the opposition’s to lose. And they lost it big time; in 2014 and also in 2019.
In both instances an opportunity existed for Botswana to experience a democratic change of power from one party to the other.
In the end it did not happen.
In 2014 the blame was with the Botswana Congress party for refusing to join hands. In 2019, the BCP came into the UDC, but the UDC still did not win, in fact the party lost almost all of the constituencies it had won in 2014.
There is need for soul-searching.
The joining of the opposition ranks by former president Ian Khama has altered Botswana’s politics for good.
It will matter little whether or not he chooses to go back to the ruling party in the future.
Khama’s political vehicle, the Botswana Patriotic Front has captured all of the Serowe constituencies. It has demonstrated the extent to which people attach their emotions to Khama in certain regions.
The BDP should be deeply worried that Khama still wants more. If he is successful then the potency of his political capital might get solidified.
