Party leaders review Botswana’s political landscape in 2023

The year 2023 will go down as one of the most politically tumultuous, momentous and conflictual in the political history of this country.

It has been defined by the tensions which originated from the fallout between the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) and its affiliate, the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) back in 2022.

This was after the departure of the BCP from the collective. Principally, the mighty fallout, emanated from disagreements between the two political entities on governance issues, among other things.

“This year has certainly not been a good one politically and otherwise. In my view, mismanagement of the country reached alarming proportions economically leading to the worst shortages of drugs, among other essentials. A significant number of local companies collapsed leading to a significant loss of jobs,” political commentator Themba Joina, said. Joina is also worried about the court case which has been going on for some time involving the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and the UDC. Joina is concerned that the IEC and the UDC had to go to court.

“The development is unprecedented. The source of the conflict is the fact that, the ruling party is averse to political reforms in aid of democracy and transparency. We need to reform our electoral processes if we want to be a democracy in the practical sense. It is high time we amended our constitution to allow for direct election of the president,” Joina suggested. Nor is he happy that calls for empowerment of the youth, women, people with disability, have been ignored. Joina would like the country to adopt proportional representation. “This would enhance the involvement of women and other marginalised people. The reforms, in my view, have to be brought about before the end of 2023”, he suggested. Joina always wonders about the criteria used to choose speciallyelected Members of Parliament or Council. To him, the process reeks of corruption as it is clouded in secrecy. “There should be transparency when people get picked or are specially elected,” Joina demanded. For his part, president of the Botswana Labour Party (BLP), Dr Prince Dibeela whose party has recently joined the BCP Coalition, is of the view that the Judiciary is not consistent as they sometimes shun political court cases only to attend them apparently at will.

Commenting on the Madibelatlhopho case between the IEC and UDC, he suggested that government has to be careful and do everything possible to ensure that it (government) is not ruling a nation of angry people. In his view, the rule of law in Botswana is going down.

“No government wants to run a country populated by an angry nation. When people are angry, they can be different. It is always up to government to not fuel unnecessary disgruntlements because, when the people are angry, they will change history by acting differently. They may unite and turn the tide of history,” the Pastor added. Dibeela could not complete the interview without calling the opposition to be exemplary.

“I condemn the ruling party for rigging. However, it would be hypocritical of us to whine about BDP electoral fraud when we do the same to each other in the primaries at opposition parties,” Dr Dibeela suggested. “It is unfortunate that as the opposition, we could not unite. Some in the concerned parties failed to look at the bigger picture,” Nono Kgafela, secretary general of the Botswana Peoples’ Party (BPP), said. In her view, parents are not doing enough to politicise their children on their responsibility with regard to voting and effecting a change of government.

“It is our job as parents to politicise our children and make them understand the extent to which government decisions impact their future so that they (the children) may take the matters into their hands by voting. My point is that the parents should motivate the revolution. Our children must understand why and how they must vote”, Kgafela said.

For the secretary general of the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), Kavis Kario, the year 2023 has been a very productive year courtesy of the party leader, Mokgweetsi Masisi. “The President’s transformative agenda has been very effective. President Masisi and the party are determined to deliver on the development agenda. His value chain development agenda delivered the historical deal between Botswana and De Beers. Water and power have become accessible to the people,” the BDP SG said. He is happy with the stability of the ruling party. The BDP, according to Kario, is on the verge of going through the candidate selection process. “We are going to go out of our way to select the most electable candidates whose characters, wisdom will have an influence in the candidate’s performance going to the general election.”

Kario dismissed as lies and propaganda, allegations of vote stealing by the ruling party which has been the subject of litigation lately. “They are trying hard to win the sympathy of the voter,” he noted.