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HEAVY POLITICAL TIDE AND WINDS OF CHANGE SWEEPING IN FORCEFUL

The toppling of the ruling party political heavyweights is ushering in a new era. It is a new era where Batswana are freely expressing their freedom of thought and avoiding the phenomena of group thinking as well as dodging and ducking the contagious temptations of being pulled by the effect of enigmatic and charismatic politicians who thrive on exploiting their already publicized last name. The country’s top diplomat and legislator was the first to bite the dust triggering a chain effect that after the dust had settled the Botswana Democratic Party primary elections had claimed a number of prominent casualties among them Phandu Skelemani, country top diplomat himself, Lebonaamang Mokalake, Dikgakgamatso Seretse as well as Peter Siele among others. It is a comforting sign to see that even in Serowe which is known as a Khama family political strong hold, the president’s first cousin Dikgakgamatso could bite the dust not once but twice after a re- run with even a widened electoral margin than before, quietening down the skeptics and burying all doubt. The ministry of Defence Justice and Security with Seretse at the helm and the Ministry of Foreign affairs led by Phandu Skelemani, are considered powerful and somewhat key ministries in the government but that did not in any way help these men in their primary elections and ironically they were humiliated in way that nation was not expecting for senior politicians and party elders to be.This showed that Botswana is slowly coming to a point where politicians are not elected blindly basing on the amount of power they wield socially or the amount of dignity attached to their last name but the amount of potential and political talent and skill they posses. Batswana have witnessed first hand the result of doing just that, and that is why they did not want Foreign Affairs Minister Skelemani in office after the 2014 general elections. The manners and diplomatic protocol lacking Skelemani had on a couple of occasions shamed the country wit his unprofessional dealings with other country even though he is the face of the country in diplomatic arenas. From his calling of Madagascan President Andry Rajeolina a small Dj to his diplomatic rows with Zimbabwe to his loose canon style diplomacy in the Uhuru Kenyatta-International Criminal Court of Justice saga he was shame to our peace loving nation’s diplomatic front and truly needed to be done away with.

Bold textAFRICA MUST SHAKE OFF ITS ATTITUDE OF ALWAYS BEING THE LAST IF IT WANTS SUCCESS…

Africa has a hurtful habit of lagging behind in every department. Take sport, arts infrastructural development, technology and the list can go on and on. The lazy and worthless African politicians we have elected and put into our parliaments also fail to avert the wrongs of the past and avoid repeating the same mistakes of their predecessors .If you can tell them this, they respond by giving you the time line of their stay in the office and probably say ‘well, I have been in the office too and I have not looked into that certain case yet,’ but it is understandable that no one should be held accountable for the past mistakes that were already In office when they arrived. But it becomes a problem when you fail to account for mistakes happening before your very own eyes. It is even more heartbreaking for true patriots to bear witness daily, to potbellied politicians not taking visible actions or steps to rectify problems that are of serious concern to their own people. It also becomes heart wrenching when the damage that is being done is irreparable and cannot be undone. Botswana and a host of other African countries have become a dumping ground for unwanted, polluting and ozone layer-unfriendly Western Asian auto mobiles. Vehicles from Britain, Japan and Singapore are flooding our streets and these are the same vehicles that are deemed unsafe and not wanted for their high rate of green house gas emissions in the countries of their origin. Africa willingly accepts them as they are enticingly cheap and allows even members of the public who could formally not be able to acquire an automobile previously because of their soaring prices are now able to do so. Botswana seems to be at the forefront. It is also on the firing line to take the full brunt of the effects that the Europeans and Asians are avoiding by shipping them to Africa. Health and environmental effects posed by the influx of these vehicles will come to bite us in future. The Europeans and Asians are firstly and foremost shielding themselves from the deadly emissions that cause global warming and they are not regarding the welfare and safety of Africans. And the useless policy makers in African parliaments can only care about lining their pockets with taxpayer’s monies due to corruption, take home sitting allowances as well as building their names legacies in the minds of their own people. Unless African leaders learn to believe that everything is possible in this continent of ours that is rich in a wide array of minerals and raw materials of all sorts, that is when they can start gravitating to an independent stance. That is when we can start to sit on a negotiating table with the Europeans or Asians as equals and be able to say no! to the dumping of highly carbon emitting vehicles on our still young, untouched and unchartered continent.

ALCOHOL TAX HIKING: INGENIOUS POLICY OR PRODUCT OF DESPERATE LEADERSHIP?

The hiking of taxes of alcohol beverages is simply visibly not working as intended .We were told when it started that its aim was to curb the abuse of alcohol especially among the youth ranks and those who take home minimum wage monthly. Revelers of this country also seem oblivious to the ever continuous soaring alcohol prices that have and generated millions of Pula’s  as a result of the hefty alcohol levy. They nevertheless flood bars, drinking spots and clubs in their multitudes in a quest for a good time. It seems that the role of the alcohol levy is now focused on generating income to fund the failing government projects such as the Youth Fund that helps the youth to start businesses for themselves and encourage the spirit of entrepreneurship in our country. Nowadays the original intention of the yearly levy increment is never easily mentioned but what is mentioned, is the amount of money raised and what the monies are going to be used for, painting a picture of a struggling leadership that has run out of ideas to generate income for the country and its youth and are resorting to taking money easily from the alcohol levies using and abusing their authoritative powers. The faltering economic diversification program coupled with initiative less leadership and the pressure from the population demanding jobs has pushed the leadership to the brink of insanity. The helter skelter scrambling around of the Botswana Democratic Party led government exposes its anxiety and its resistance of change as well as it having run out of ideas. Its latest idea of resuscitating the long dead 80’s and 90’s program of Tirelo Setshaba is a symptom of an exhausted gorvenment, as it is bringing a policy which failed and was not relevant to the modern times. The amount of compensation is ridiculously, low as compared to the soaring prices of household items and food. The government is exploiting the desperation of our hopeless and helpless youth. It is kicking a man who is already down again and again, and mocking them with the meager pay that even the retailing private sector is not doing by paying workers that low amount no more.

CURRENT LEADERHIP DYING A SLOW DEATH…POLICIES SPEAKS VOLUMES

The backyard gardening program and the Ipelegeng program still remain issues of volatile nature in our society. They are still a sore and a thorn on the side and minds of the people. Botswana Democratic Party led government is a party that has evidently ran out of ideas for running the country. The slow   process of economic diversification is the first symptom of administration that is fighting for life to stay in power. The second is the continuous implementation and rolling out of temporary national, programs. This is a question has to be forwarded to the ruling BDP, that “why is it bombarding the desperate nation with a barrage of low funded temporary relief programs on the pretext that it is encouraging the spirit of independence and entrepreneurship. If our government is keen on encouraging the growth of entrepreneurship spirit then it has  took a wrong turn concerning the issue of backyard gardening program. If we suppose that backyard gardeners assisted by the government becomes successful and their operation outgrows the small patch of their backyard. There are no clear plans in place to assist such backyard gardener to expand their operation by giving them land  and or interest free loans. This is a scenario that describes the generation of a devoted, organized and successful backyard graduate. Their plans to expand their operation are simply going to be blocked by the bureaucracy of the system and most importantly the incompetency of the top decision makers who failed to explore all the avenues to back up in their words when they say that backyard gardening promotes entrepreneurship. Dumb politicians also fail to exploit the issues like this. A true and good leader could have questioned why there is no contingency plan for backyard gardeners who outgrow their small backyard patches. We are then safe to assume that it was all done on purpose to frustrate the people and keep them poverty stricken and this was exploited for political reasons. Ipelegeng Temporary Relief is also a mere child’s play. Their P400 salary is mere peanuts when compared to the level of inflation and raising prices. Household items cost way too much and the sum of P400 works against the said government intentions of encouraging the spirit of independence. It is safe to say that these are policies of political expediency brought upon the majority of the population who cannot scrutinize these types of decisions and see how poor thought they are.

THE CRUMBLING TO PIECES OF A DEATH PENALTY… The laws states that the purpose of punishment is never intended for revenge. The law officials with their lax approach on law matters exude all the hallmarks of an incompetent bunch of capitalists. It does not take a blind man to see that the death penalty is not working and it is not serving its initial intended purpose of being a deterrent to would be murderers. But should you tell this to the face of a legislator or law man they will probably start saying things like “well no study has been carried out to confirm that the punishment is not working. “Many murders take place every month and people do not seem to be afraid of the hangman’s noose. It is as if they have simply forgotten that killing another person attracts a death penalty for themselves. The amount of threat to kill cases that flood our police stations daily attest to that. Perhaps the time span it takes between the executions has convinced most of us that it is not every one who gets slapped with a death sentence. But the jig is up and the fact remains that something somewhere is not adding up, that the death penalty has lost the basis of its foundation and needs a serious overhaul. The review may not be fixed on abolishing the death penalty as some may automatically think but may suggest other means to be used and routes to be taken to ensure that the current state of ever continuous murders are brought down or reduced or even abolished totally, rather than forever sticking to a decades old law that has proven to be left behind by time and has not been revised despite its showing signs of irrelevance to modern times where matters such as, law policies, technology and even neighborly diplomacy has gotten into the fray of things. Death penalty in this era of ours attracts the attention of human rights non-governmental groups as far afield as Europe. This is the same continent that acts as a cornerstone to the success of our economy either directly or indirectly through our raw materials destined for European households and industrial firms such as our beef and valuable diamonds. It also attracts the attention of our regional neighbors such as South Africa which is our prime importers of an array of goods and commodities. South Africa being anti-death penalty has in the past blocked the repatriations of Botswana’s fugitives who fled our country after they had committed murder, defying the saying that no one can escape the wrath and or the long arm of the law. The death penalty in Botswana needs a serious overhaul for two reasons. It could harm our international relations though we recognize our right to sovereignty. It is also not wise to keep a law without review and without trying out other avenues to take in order to come out with a best deal out of it that will suit everybody, then perhaps if we fail at this then that’s when we can choose to remain with our ultimate deterrent: death penalty…