THE TROUBLE WITH UDC
● Leaders at the UDC are downright dishonest ● UDC Leadership should change between parties ● Conveners should be called back to avoid mistrust
The conflict-ridden Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) has been advised to start afresh by reforming its constitution and the rest of its processes.
The coalition, which has further been advised against a merger of all its constituent parties, has been implored to rope back the Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) and independent Conveners if there is to be hope and stability in the project.
Nehemiah Modubule and Themba Joina have advised the conflictridden Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) to start afresh by reforming its constitution and the rest of its processes. Modubule is former Member of Parliament (MP) for Lobatse and now chairman of Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) while Joina is president of the Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin (MELS). While the BMD is not part of UDC, MELS, is an affiliate member of the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) which is a UDC member alongside Botswana National Front (BNF) and Botswana Peoples’ Party (BPP). Modubule does not agree with those clamouring for a UDC elective congress. His take is that only political parties can hold a special congress. “The UDC is not a political party because it was never meant to be that. It was conceived as a mere instrument for the facilitation of the general elections. That is why even the constitution was never followed but rather the transitional clause was used. “The constitution was just a bridge to the 2014 general elections. The UDC as it is cannot and should not attempt an elective congress based on the existing constitution for it will not work,”,Modubule said in an interview. He reckons the best that UDC can do is to use the transition clause to have the parties delegate an equal number of representatives from the contracting partners and to also invite the opposition parties not in the UDC to send delegates to re-negotiate the whole process without changing the UDC name. “Due to the imperative to make some major changes in the UDC, a special congress, not an elective one, is necessary with its foremost mandate being to make a thorough evaluation of the 2019 general elections. “This gathering should discuss the UDC constitution as well as examining its policies,” Modubule said, adding that part of the reasons why there are divisions within the UDC is that, certain things are not clearly spelt out. “It is also important for the delegates to revisit the issue of leadership positions,” Modubule said, adding that when the UDC talks started in 2011, the party presidents of the three contracting parties at the time, namely BMD, BNF and BPP, were assigned to decide how the UDC leadership should be constituted. "At the end, the BNF was allocated the presidency of the collective while the BMD contributed the secretary general with the BPP chairing the Umbrella,” Modubule explained.
Modubule also highlighted the centrality of compromises and sacrifices in a coalition arrangement.
“This is despite the fact that BMD had nine MPs while the BNF had eight. The BMD compromised and allowed the BNF to occupy the top-most office in the coalition. Compromise by the BMD allowed things to go smoothly. We compromised for the sake of the project’,’ he explained.
For his part, Joina does not support the envisaged and much-talked about dissolution of the UDC. According to him, all the political parties, particularly the minority ones, should instead be protected. He would like the UDC to broaden its base to ensure that nobody is left behind. “To this end, the UDC must reform its constitution to provide for the protection of the minority parties by increasing the number of the National Executive Committee (NEC) members and that of the Central Committee (CC) members to 15 each.” He said that the positions in NEC must be filled at an elective congress. Regarding the CC, Joina said that each of the five parties expected to constitute the UDC should have representation. He said that if the ongoing UDC talks meant to embrace the Alliance for Progressives (AP) and Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) are to be successful, they “must delegate three members each to the CC.” He said out of the 57 constituencies each party should choose three of them to contest against the BDP with the support of its partners in the opposition. Meanwhile, the rest of the constituencies should be open for primary elections by the contracting parties if things go Joina’s way. “The party delegates may decide to have a rotational leadership after every five years. The BNF has led the UDC for 10 years. That can be changed by having a different party leading UDC as we go to the next elections. These are some of the things the delegates may discuss,” Joina suggested. Meanwhile, people who want to join the UDC directly without joining any of the contracting partners should be issued a UDC membership card and allowed to contest the primaries as well, Joina explained. The MELS leader does not support the idea of merging the political parties, but believes that those wishing to merge their parties should be allowed to do so. "No party should be forced out of existence." According to the MELS leader, the main challenge facing the UDC is that partisan and personal interests reign supreme at the expense of the project. "Some of the leaders are downright dishonest. There is also a lot of back-biting, mistrust, fear and a sense of entitlement in the organisation. “It is unfortunate that when the people ask for a congress, they are accused of wanting to oust Duma Boko,” Joina regretted. Boko is leader of the BNF as well as the UDC.