In early May 2016, the private media was awash with news that the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tati East Guma Moyo was suing MP for Gaborone North Haskins Nkaigwa for P2m in damages for defamation. Perhaps in conformity with the mind of a poor fellow, my immediate reaction after reading the story was narrowed to the amount of money demanded as compensation for the alleged harm. I reckoned the amount was grossly excessive and disproportionate to the harm done.
This perhaps was because I have always read that the plaintiff is moneyed hence I refused to entertain the silly thought that he could be raiding the other chap’s pockets to top up his own. It then occurred to me that lawsuits have gradually but surely become a defining feature of our society especially on the political front. In effect, a compensation culture is trending in Botswana and every pretender desires to show off their might by initiating frivolous lawsuits that are motivated mainly by political considerations and to a lesser extent by monetary gains than protecting one’s reputation.
Be that as it may, it seems it is often the rich and political wannabes who are championing litigation and more so seeking compensation from low life chaps deprived of money. Discussed from this perspective, litigation seems to be more about punishing the little man through punitive damage demands. It is becoming a sure way to teach the small man a cruel lesson and intimidate like-minded scoundrels and cause to shut up.
This culture of litigation has been building up in the last few years with the explanation being that an increase in litigation suggests an increase in access to justice. The argument is that an increase in litigation implies that people have trust in the justice system and prefer to approach the courts to address their grievances. This is a plausible supposition. However, a critical appraisal of the increasing volumes of litigation points to class warfare. Essentially, litigation has a class character ensuring that it favours those with power and these are the rich and the politically connected useful idiots. This explains why the majority of successful litigants are the affluent. Yet, the justice system works in such a way that all of us have a right to litigate with equal chance to succeed. However, the cruel truth is that the small man is much unlikely to succeed and when they do succeed, the compensation they receive is not enough to cover legal fees. It is a fact that the courts are inherently biased against the average person and have become a deadly arsenal used by the rich to reduce the little man to a niggling pet.
Thus, an increase in litigation seems to points to a society that is becoming increasingly vindictive, intolerant and greedy to the point where lawsuits have become a lottery. This trend exposes deep rifts between the rich and the poor, with the rich very much determined to silence and shame the poor souls. This has become a bare-knuckled fight and a dangerous political game chaperoned by political heavyweights and fortuitous businessmen or tenderpreneurs.
Prior to the ascendance of Dr Khama to the presidency of the Republic of Botswana, the lawsuit filed by the then Attorney General Phandu Skelemani against the then state President Mogae regarding the report of the Commission of Inquiry into the postponement of a national referendum remains the notable high profile litigation on record in Botswana. Indeed this was an unprecedented and isolated case that nearly embarrassed the nation. However, the presidency of Dr Khama seems to have buoyed the culture of litigation by words and by deeds.
Nearly a year after assuming the reigns, President Dr Khama reportedly threatened to sue the Sunday Standard newspaper after it carried a story on the killing of John Kalafatis alleging the involvement of the president. Since then Botswana has become a prototype of the American society where parent can sue a school for inadequate supervision after their child was found in possession of prohibited drugs. Our society has become dangerously litigious and compensation sought is often ridiculous and evidently punitive, extractive and ruinous.
In 2013, President Dr Khama announced that his government would use public funds to fund defamation lawsuits against the media by Cabinet ministers and senior government officers. Owing to his overbearing and emphatic influence on locals, it was expected that his lap dogs and devoted admirers were certainly going to do his bidding and start bombarding the courts with frivolous and idiotic litigation.
As a result, a month hardly passes without newspaper reports carrying outrageous threats of litigation. All of us have been infected hence newspaper headlines such as these have become a part of us; BCP to sue Khama over Merafhe; Venson-Moitoi; LSB to sue Khama over Motuimse rejection; Batlokwa to sue Khama over Ruretse; Suspended judges sue Khama; Basarwa sue Khama. Our courts are clogged with frivolous, vindictive and petty lawsuits.
Whereas litigation is one way of resolving conflict or repairing harm done to one’s reputation, it has come to make the lives of the ordinary folks chaotic and miserable in ways that stifle freedoms. Owing to the fears of court action, the average person spends inordinate amount of time looking over their shoulders instead of freely and actively partaking in daily life activities. The fear of being sued for jokingly teasing the rich and expressing disapproval hampers innovation, humility and prosperity. In taking excessive precautionary measures to avoid liability arising out of a slip of the tongue, citizens risk surrendering to the whims of moneyed political thugs.
These moneyed baddies and political rogues with big pockets regularly take aim at the little man who has come to like to speak in jest and to tout the rich as a way of demonstrating that in spite of his poverty, he is alive after all. An obsession with litigation creates a culture of entitlement where the super-rich boys have come to believe that their money entitles them to everything including the enforced silence of the majority. This they do by hunting down the small man with a view to raiding their pockets until they plead for mercy and allow themselves to be used anyhow ÔÇô remember go tlalanyana ko jarateng ya teng?
For politicians, especially impecunious pretenders, the propensity to sue is also motivated by inherent human greed and the urge to publicly humiliate and annihilate opponents. In consequence, their daily lives are saddled with thoughts of whom to sue to raise campaign funds. Thus, for the little politician, litigation may not be about addressing a grievance but rather it could be an elaborate plan to annihilate loud-mouthed-know it all penniless patriots who are presumed to be jealously interrupting and preventing the rich from ‘eating’ the national cake all alone. It is a well thought out strategy to hit the talkative, ever moaning, grumpy fellow where they are weakest ÔÇô their tiny pocket- and cause them to starve until they start cannibalizing.
