Umbrella for Democratic Change wants to win state power.
That, we have to point out is the easier part.
Before winning state power, the UDC should strive to stay solidly intact.
That is a much more difficult undertaking than winning a General Election.
History teaches us that managing coalitions is never an easy task. The leader has to juggle competing and often violently hostile interests.
Assuring each of the components that they are better off inside than outside is never an easy feat.
Thankfully for them there are no policy differences between the UDC contracting parties.
In fact a committee established ahead of the talks that led to establishment of UDC in 2012 concluded that contrary to popular opinion, in many instances, the Botswana Movement for Democracy was much more radical and even more left leaning than the often egotistic Botswana National Front socialists.
It is thus understandably wrong, hurtful and indeed insulting to BMD activists when they are dismissed as a wing of the BDP trading under some other name.
The Botswana Congress Party is today not a member of UDC not on account of any policy differences they might have had with other parties. The party’s policies were deemed to be very much similar to those of the BMD, the BNF and the BPP.
Lest we forget, the fallout was a result of dividing constituencies among political parties.
With the UDC now bracing for a new round of negotiations with Botswana Congress Party, it is important to underscore the fact that there is no need to go back to those items that had already been settled before the constituency allocation fallout put paid any chances of BCP joining.
While still there it is equally important to pay heed to the fact that some hardline UDC supporters are already beating the drums of caution against arrival of BCP.
They are worried that the arrival of BCP into the scene is an ingredient for both instability and also paralysis.
It is hard to dismiss them with any contempt.
But the BCP of today is much more different from that one of pre-October, 2014.
Their loss in the General Elections has brought them back closer to earth.
They have had a lot to atone for since then.
Today’s BCP is humbler and much more pragmatic.
But still their unity enthusiasts should be careful to respect the political fears still held by some on the other side.
The real challenge ultimately falls squarely on the shoulders of the UDC leader, Duma Boko.
He has to demonstrate that he is up to the task ahead.
Modesty and humility can take him far. He has to allay the genuine fears by some of his followers while not alienating the zealots inside the BCP who cannot wait a day more without joining UDC.
BCP leaders have in the past committed serious errors of judgment that have cost Boko and his UDC victory. This should never be lost to anybody’s memory.
But humiliating the BCP is not part of the solution.
The BCP leader, Dumelang Saleshando has to feel welcome. He should not be given reason to entertain a slightest belief that a life in isolation was any better than what awaits him inside the UDC.
Still for Boko the bigger challenge is not winning over the BCP. Rather it is carrying with him his trusted allies. The arrival of the BCP should not in anywhere dislocate any of the pieces that the BCP finds already inside the UDC.
Ndaba Gaolathe’s position seems to be as confirmed as to be cast in stone.
The same however cannot be said about Motlatsi Molapisi, the leader of Botswana Peoples Party.
Boko has to reassure Molapisi and indeed his BPP that the BCP arrival into the scene need not stoke any uncertainties.
Molapisi plays a crucially pivotal role that is still to be fully appreciated even by the most ardent opposition unity adherents.
Sadly even our political analysts have not yet fully understood the extent to which Molapisi and the BPP are a pillar to UDC stability.
Molapisi might not have the high numbers running behind him, but his mere presence inside the tent inspires a kind of assurance that skeptics and detractors like to point is lacking inside the UDC. Because of his age, he is grounded, mature and level headed.
Even without saying a word, just by his mere presence, Molapisi dispels away a potentially damaging accusation that UDC is nothing more than a club of kids that have been left home alone. Cultivating him is as important as making him feel he belongs.
Boko thus needs to reassure Molapisi that the arrival of the BCP will not in any way result in the shuffling of original pieces that have always made up the UDC. It is Boko afterall who has most to lose, should this not be the case.
The UDC leader’s biggest challenge really is to prove to everybody surrounding him that the outcome of negotiations with BCP is not going to be a seal of unilateralist declarations coming from him alone. The BCP terms of joining has to be a result of the collective. Otherwise even their stay inside the UDC will become tenuous.
Since the 2014 General Elections, the UDC has made breathtakingly tremendous inroads towards convincing skeptics that they are indeed a viable alternative.
But complacency has always lurked not too far away.
From their demeanour there is not much evidence to suggest that UDC leadership is fully conscious of the extent to which they are now literally the embodiment of the nation’s last hopes.
This is what the UDC leadership has to work on. It will not be easy.
Responding to the budget speech early in the week, Boko somewhat started a process towards addressing this shortcoming. His speech was bold and statesman-like. The quality of his presentation left even his opponents envious.
The leader of opposition talked about cancelling the purchase of obscenely expensive military jets ordered by Government. He talked about restoring the integrity of our education system. He left many of us misty-eyed when he said for his party the internet is a human right that will be enjoyed even by the poorest of the poor.
He sealed it off by saying a UDC Government will provide secondary students with laptops as a way of enhancing e-learning. What e-Government money has been lost through corruption will be recovered and culprits sent to jail, he said.
And from the look in their furrowed faces the entire members of cabinet present immediately took notice that the game rules had just changed right before their eyes.
In truth the outcome of the next General Elections will not be fought distinctly between UDC and the Botswana Democratic Party.
The ruling BDP has quite an exhaustive list of internal issues to sort out before then.
Early indications are that the ruling party is on an experimental crusade trying to figure out what can lift it out from the rut.
But for now the BDP is a badly divided house.
The situation is so bad that they cannot even agree on producing an internal audit to account for what happened in 2014 to result with them getting less than 50% share of the popular vote.
President Ian Khama is for now the big elephant in the room that nobody wants to call by name.
But even if Khama was to leave tomorrow, there is still no consensus on the way forward.
Jacob Nkate thinks only a person of his solid track record, with proven political activity credentials can steady the troubled ship. Mokgweetsi Masisi thinks that he has come too close to the throne to be sent away without sitting on it ÔÇô even if it is only for a few days. Boyce Sebetlela has looked around and seems to have concluded that only a man of his immense intellect can restore certainty. Nonofo Molefhi has such unwavering faith in his aura of integrity that he will not settle for anybody else. And for many reasons, not least that she is a woman, Tebelelo Seretse wants everybody to submit to her ambitions by rallying behind her. There is no room for a compromise.
To say it’s a crowded field is to underestimate the willfully disorientating impact these many names will have on the already bemused members. It is a chaotic landscape.
