The new president-elect of Botswana is human rights lawyer Duma Boko. (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images For 2nd CGDC Annual Meeting 2012)
Nobody saw it coming.
“I don’t know what happened … what might have led to us losing power,” said Slumber Tsogwane last Friday. Tsogwane chairs the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), which has governed since independence. A humiliating defeat in last week’s parliamentary elections has ended its 58-year rule.
Tsogwane, like most other BDP MPs, has lost his seat. The party with the most seats in parliament appoints the president. With the BDP winning just three of the 61 seats, its leader President Mokgweetsi Masisi conceded defeat on Friday.
“President Masisi failed to hold the BDP together and failed to manage the country’s economic downturn … [and oversaw] an erosion of democratic principles,” said Pamela Dube, a gender and political activist in Gaborone.
The president-elect is human rights lawyer Duma Boko, leader of the United Democratic Congress, which won the 31 seats required to form a government. The UDC has promised to improve the country’s minimum wage, winning support among the youth.
That promise would not have been credible coming from the BDP given that Masisi’s regime struggled to turn around the downturn triggered by a fall in global diamond prices.
The gems contribute up to 40% of Botswana’s revenue. As their sales slumped, so did the economy, driving unemployment to 27%.
The UDC promised to implement a new economic model focused on job creation and wealth-distribution plans to empower all citizens.
Now it has to deliver on that because, as its new legislator Kgoborego Nakwane points out, “Many young people are struggling and a great percentage live off handouts from the government because there are no jobs.”
This article first appeared in The Continent, the pan-African weekly newspaper produced in partnership with the Mail & Guardian. It’s designed to be read and shared on WhatsApp. Download your free copy here.