It was to dedicate itself to the cause of the oppressed and exploited. The UDC came at a time when the public service had an outburst in the form of the longest strike in the history of Botswana. Workers demanded high wages and improvement in the workplace, in 2010. The initiation of UDC was also influenced by the fact that the ruling Botswana Democratic Party in 2010, found itself in irreconcilable hurting divisions within its membership ranking, which eventually led into the formation of a new party, Botswana Movement for Democracy. These developments and others played an imperative function in obligating opposition parties to harness and coordinate people`s struggles through a single body i.e. the Umbrella for Democratic Change. Desirably the project was supposed to include all the opposition parties, but it ended up having only three of them because of the different opinions on political models, which were presented for selection and adoption. The other would-be partners found it better to take a dangerous but nonetheless honest alleyway of going it alone.
The Umbrella for Democratic Change is a party that is being projected as revolutionary by its leadership. We often time hear statements such as; 'Regime Change is now' in their political rallies. Calls for a 'Revolution' are echoed by the UDC leadership whenever they are addressing the public. However, in the turn of events, activists in the respective parties who have united to face the ruling BDP in the 2014 general elections are raising concerns relating to the Umbrella for Democratic Change project. Comrades argue that the UDC leadership ignores their concerns, despite using proper structures of channelling grievances. It looks like the UDC leadership has adopted an avoidance strategy as a way of silencing, undermining the opinions of comrades despite their support to the UDC project. All this is said to be done for the sake of peace and stability in opposition unity by the leadership of UDC. But a deeper insight of the situation reveals more of the UDC concrete situation. Through this article I wish to contribute to such analysis, and I do not wish to claim clairvoyance, as there are no prophets in politics.
