It’s too early yet for the UDC to start to panic.
It is much, much early for them to even start thinking of giving up.
Yes, there are difficulties; very serious difficulties.
But the government is not imploding. Far from it!
The difficult phase they are going through is natural for any government, especially a government that is manned by inexperienced hands.
And the UDC government does not have too many experienced hands in it.
They only came to power just over year ago.
They were replacing a party that had been in power for close to sixty years.
Once in office, the UDC has found itself compelled to play games of political psychology – to buy time, but also to appease the powerful interests that still control the economy of this country.
That for me was strategic maturity. Safety first!
Rattling the powerful interests immediately upon taking office was a risk not worth taking.
As a result, the UDC government has been forced to rely on a big number of known names from the previous administration to continue doing work for the new government.
There has been demonstrable reticence to remove even the most toxic of these key names.
Keeping them was also a risk – perhaps a risk worth taking.
Maintaining such people in their jobs had reasons.
First it had to do with maintaining stability. Threatening entrenched interests inside government could easily cause a blowback.
This was a wise decision. A new and still very weak government can only succeed if it is deemed to be harmless especially by powerful and wealthy interests.
Second it had to do with the fear of shaking the status quo too fast and too hard.
Any shakeup had to be slow and incremental.
If the above assertions are true, then it follows that the UDC has accepted that Botswana is a conservative society. It also means an admission by UDC that the previous administration had left deep roots and tentacles across the public service.
For the UDC to succeed, the party had to accept going through a phase of self-denial.
This was not voluntary but strategic.
This means effectively means being what they are not – as a way of being accepted broadly by the entrenched interests that control both power and wealth. In other words, traditional BDP backers.
There is another reason why UDC felt a compelling need to keep key figures from the previous administration.
Many of the UDC Members of Parliament had never worked anywhere.
And these were the same people from which cabinet had to be appointed.
One has to scrounge around to find a cabinet minister who has held any real life portfolio prior to them becoming a minister.
It is Pius Mokgware and may be a handful of others.
The trouble though is that there is no probation in politics.
The clock starts counting the moment you enter office.
Such people needed guidance in the form of seasoned public service, even as that public service had long ceased to be apolitical.
But it is now time for UDC to assume its real colours.
It will not be easy.
With the economy fraying, the truth of the matter is that there is not much largesse for the UDC to spread around.
When the going got tough, Ian Khama doled out the Economic Stimulus Package.
When Covid-19 struck, Mokgweetsi Masisi released millions in social welfare.
The UDC does have such luxury.
The UDC faithful are also getting prickly.
They are saying enough is enough.
They are very unhappy that their party has gone to extraordinary lengths to appease and accommodate powerful interests from the previous administrations – at a cost of course.
They are insisting that now it’s the time for UDC to go back to its own territory.
For that to happen the UDC will have to be bolder.
It will also have to take risks. It will also have to do away with self-doubt. And most crucially, the UDC will have to believe in itself and its own people.
The party cannot forever be skirting around its own ideas and ideals for fear of annoying its political adversaries.
The UDC came to power on the strengths of its electoral pledges.
At the very least t was elected based on how unpopular the other contenders were.
UDC leadership reckoned that the country was still dominated by powerful interests aligned to the Botswana Democratic Party.
They figured that threatening those interests could easily backfire. That meant that the UDC had to constrain itself.
That meant it had to disguise its true identity.
Those days are gone.
It is now time to change the status quo.
The UDC will have to pivot towards its inner soul and inner self.
In short it is time for a Reset.