Botswana is a country in despair, President of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) Duma Boko told the nation during a Press Briefing held at Cresta Lodge, in Gaborone on Wednesday 16^th of May 2023. In the litany of problems that the country faces, Boko specifically mentioned a public health care system that “helplessly slaughters thousands of people through sheer failure to provide the most rudimentary of the needs of patients”. He promised that when his party takes power in the 2024 elections, they will introduce a national health insurance scheme that will ensure that “everybody has access to quality health care, underwritten by the government and guaranteeing them decent lives and livelihoods”.

By Duma Gideon Boko

The UDC is a coalition; an evolving and growing coalition that seeks to galvanize all opposition parties in Botswana into a resilient, inclusive, stable and revolutionary government to lead this country in 2024. The UDC is the people’s project.

It is a project that draws on the unique history and experiences of each of its constituent parties to forge a common bond of outlook between them. Ours is an initiative that departs 2 from the unbearable insularity that has characterised efforts to change government in Botswana and indeed the whole continent.

I must state and state with almost truculent conviction, that the future of opposition politics in Africa lies in coalition or aggregation. As such, the UDC represents an attempt; an enduring quest, to depart from the beaten path of separate and insular existences to carve out a unique and defiant vision of unity and diversity.

We, in the UDC, are under no illusion that coalition politics is easy or devoid of challenges. We have met and continue to face a fair number of challenges. But the challenges have only served to fuel our belief that the allurements of our togetherness trump all the flaws and frustrations of past experiences.

I know that challenges often leave our people fuming and fretting; they leave some of our leaders despondent and broken. But drawing from the heroic efforts of the UDC and other coalition experiments in Kenya, Nigeria and other places, I must urge opposition parties in Botswana and Africa, to embrace coalition politics.

The UDC has crafted a simple message of hope for our country. This message has been widely embraced and continues to resonate with our people. It is a message that speaks to the tensions and predicaments of their fragile existence. Our people are groaning under a massive cost-of-living crisis that leaves them unable to meet their barest of needs.

They face grinding poverty. Our people survive under a crushing burden of household debt from which, absent any decisive intervention by their government, they will 3 never be able to extricate themselves. Our people have to survive on a health care system that is infinitely dysfunctional.

It is understaffed, lacks the equipment needed to provide quality care, and only succeeds in demeaning and dehumanising those who come to it in desperate need of health care. The facilities in many of our public health institutions are decrepit and a hazard to patients. The cruellest of experience in the health care system is to queue for hours, sometimes days, often months, only to be told there are no medications.

We have a public health care system that helplessly slaughters thousands of people through sheer failure to provide the most rudimentary of the needs of patients. We have a society living in the generalised trauma of losing loved ones cheaply and callously to this health care system. We must, however, applaud the gallant efforts of all our health professionals who continue to extend themselves and give their very best in these atrocious conditions in which they work.

They are not spared the trauma. What we have enumerated are but just some of the trenchant problems that face our country. A brisk survey would reveal more. Our people are unsafe in their homes, streets and walkways. Intrusive and violent crimes have risen astronomically over the last few months.

We are a country in despair. There is no end in sight. There is a deep crisis in every facet of life in this country. It is for these reasons that the UDC has chosen to focus its attention on providing answers to these dehumanising challenges. These are the reasons we have determined that all our energies 4 and resources will be applied to articulating a clear and unitive vision for Botswana.

Our message captures the tone and texture of everyday life; of the lived reality of our people, and presents a programme of action that offers hope yet for our people. Thus, as you may all have realised by now, the UDC has no time for frivolity, pettiness and trivia.

Our politics continues to be distinguishable from any of the name-calling and finger-pointing that has become the vogue language of some in our politics. The thumping victories that the UDC has scored in the recent by-elections are a source of great pride and inspiration for our cadres, activists and leaders. The people are speaking: they speak forcefully, they speak eloquently and they speak clearly. It is the UDC or nothing!

They have rejected all other distractions and diversions. They have given the clearest indication yet, of how their vote will speak in 2024. We are grateful and we commit to staying on message and to remain focused. This must indicate to all, that the UDC will not be engaging those who revel in fart-fights.

We will not debate frivolities when there are painful realities afflicting our people. We have steered clear of the politics of personalities and pointless gossip. We leave pettiness and trivia to those who have no vision and no substance. We speak to issues and we offer deeply considered policy propositions.

That is why in our latest stance, we have declared that we will develop for our people a National Health Insurance Scheme that will ensure that everybody has access to quality health care, underwritten by the government and guaranteeing them decent lives and livelihoods.

The UDC leadership accepts, with humility, the many voices of constructive advice and guidance from all our people. They continue to engage with us and to enrich our interventions. We have said before and we reiterate: let us all meet at the point of need.

There are many who have not only heard our call, but have responded to it by decamping, some of them, from wherever they were to join us in this relentless march of hope and destiny.

We welcome those who have come and extend an invitation to others still considering. On that note, and merely by dint of sheer happenstance, we have in our midst, the Chairman of the Northwest District Council, Kebareeditse Ntsogotho, who recently made the decision to affirm his loyalty to the UDC and the irreversible course of change.

I take this moment to welcome him and hand him the UDC membership card. He is a brave cadre. We salute him. We salute the many others who have also taken the same decision. We assure all of those contemplating that the doors remain open.

On that cheerful note, let me make three announcements of decisions taken by the UDC National Executive Committee at its recent meeting of 6 May 2023.

• 1. The deadline for sitting representatives who were elected in 2019 under the colours and banner of the UDC who would like to remain and contest the 2024 general elections under the UDC has been set as 31 May 2023. All those desirous of 6 availing themselves of this opportunity must formally communicate with the UDC.
• 2. In anticipation of engagements with the Alliance for Progressives, the UDC has appointed two members of its NEC to represent it. These are Dr. Patrick Molotsi and Dr. Phillip Bulawa

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• 3. The UDC President will address the nation at least once every month and articulate the UDC’s vision and stance.

It remains for me to reaffirm the UDC’s commitment to a transformative vision and programme of action to rescue the country from the accumulated calamities of the current regime. This vision of the UDC may, in instances conflict with both our accustomed ways of thinking and our established or habitual ways of acting.

We must be the change we are yearning for. I close by recognising the heroic sacrifices of our members who have worked tirelessly in the recent by-elections and whose efforts delivered the stunning victories we have seen. As I breathe my thanks to all of them, I also encourage them to take courage from their successes and work even harder.

To those standing on the side-lines and proclaiming neutrality, I advise: inaction is not a neutral activity; it is, in fact, complicity to the abuse of our people. Any claim of detachment from politics in, in reality, a fantasy enhanced with self-deception.

 This country needs all its people to rally in its defence and come to its rescue.