The good and the bad of politics in 2016
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Friday December 23, 2016 12:54
BDP
The party would believe this was their blessed and progressive year as it managed to parade hundreds of new members who were defecting from opposition parties. The defection led to the collapse of some of the structures of opposition parties. However, the BDP had its own challenges especially with regard to the party leadership when President Ian Khama steps down in 2018.
Factions over the party leadership are easily visible in Parliament as the party backbench keeps on differing with Cabinet while some MPs are always defying party caucuses. Efforts by the party president to try to caution some MPs to avoid defying party caucuses have since failed. Some members have declared their intention to challenge Vice President Mokgweetsi Masisi for party chairmanship and party presidency. As the party’s elective congress approaches, more divisions are expected to unfold at the beginning of 2017.
Opposition parties
For the first in the history, the opposition parties managed to have successful talks that saw parties agreeing to cooperate in the 2019 elections. The opposition had tried to hold talks before, but they collapsed. Although this was a good move by the parties, the cooperation topic has led to some party members, who did not want the cooperation, to defect to the ruling BDP.
This was one of the challenges faced by the opposition, as it was hit by defections from their grassroots members. Even if they had unprecedented number of deaths, the opposition managed to retain some wards and lost few in the by-elections. The test for cooperation will also be seen at Tlokweng constituency where the Member of Parliament Same Bathobakae died due to heart attack recently.
UDC
Even though the coalition had grown so fast after the 2014 elections, it seems its leadership is not prepared to address problems that they find themselves in at times. The BMD problems, especially divisions, which have hit National Executive Committee (NEC), have gone unresolved up to this point.
Failure to resolve NEC differences had contributed negatively to the collapse of BMD structures as Sidney Pilane’s issue is still hanging on their head.
Another issue which has been unresolved is the late Gomolemo Motswaledi’s report, which people are still waiting for it to be released.
Issues that sparked debate
The issue of the downfall of the economy, especially the closure of BCL Mine and failure to create jobs by the government, had resulted in the BDP leader, Khama, being criticised by the Leader of Opposition, Duma Boko.
The other issue was failure by Khama to account to Parliament.