Even in these extraordinary times, revelations of how the top patrons of the ruling party have been covertly receiving money from De Beers cannot be classified as an internal BDP matter.
Emphatically, such revelations are an issue of national interest.
The gravity of the allegations warrants a public enquiry.
If the DCEC does not investigate the BDP, many people will be right to suspect that in Botswana there are people who are above the law.
If the DCEC does not promptly act on these allegations many people will be absolved to suspect that the directorate endorses dishonesty and possible actions of criminality when such things happen somewhere near the pinnacle of our public life.
A failure by the DCEC to investigate BDP top guns will be a very explicit manner by the DCEC to make a mockery of all that the directorate stands for.
To put the whole saga into perspective, in no way can allegations of money laundering leveled at BDP, its leadership and De Beers be construed as a small matter.
True or false, these allegations go to the very root of governance in Botswana.
They are fundamental to how we are governed as a country.
They are about violating and besmirching the very principles we have always stood for as a democracy.
As is so often the case, the media and the public will soon get bored with news of BDP funding and the story will fade away.
Be that as it may, this is a big test of character for the DCEC.
While for individuals concerned reputations, careers, friendships and trust may be at stake, for DCEC it is all about integrity and honour, without which the directorate is but nothing.
That said we want to underscore the fact that it’s not yet too late for DCEC to have a burst at the hoist of integrity.
Once and for all, the DCEC will have to prove its worth. And there has never been a greater opportunity.
The tightrope that DCEC must walk – and many people are watching ÔÇô is for the directorate to bite the bullet and investigate the ruling party and the big names implicated.
This will possibly entail asking direct and pointed questions to former Presidents Quett Masire and Festus Mogae.
It may also mean asking all sorts of assistance and clarification from the sitting President.
It is not altogether inconceivable to surmise that the current President may be privy to some crucial information on how the party he has inherited and grown to control has always been financed.
If institutions like DCEC fail to seize opportunities such as this to reclaim public trust, it will not be long before ordinary people look elsewhere for remedies of the excesses meted against them by the rulers. The tragedy though is that the alternative remedies may be terribly less attractive to those in power.
But in here at issue is not the BDP, but rather the DCEC.
DCEC has long had to contend with credibility issues.
Right from its inception in the early 1990s, the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Corruption has been a lightning rod for all sorts of conspiracy theories.
Over and over again the directorate has been ripped to shreds over its obsession with following the powerless while lamely turning a blind eye on corruption by the big and powerful.
Not without justice many critics have consistently described the directorate as a lapdog.
A toothless dog that cannot be expected to bite the arm on whose palm it feeds.
While character problems have always been a part of the DCEC, in recent weeks the crisis of credibility has been ratcheted to new highs.
We learn that the new director is somehow a relation of the current President.
Implied here is an insinuation that the Director cannot be trusted to investigate her own.
It is a fact increasingly forgotten, but Ms Seretse is a professional who has been with DCEC from the very early days. She was a senior DCEC staffer long before President Khama joined politics.
But still the uncomfortable truth she has to confront is that in life perceptions matter and count more than reality. Whether she likes it or not the new DCEC Director has a duty to prove cynics wrong.
Right from the beginning, cynics pointed out that there was no way DCEC was going to be immune from the plague of political interference that has paralysed all public institutions in Botswana. Now the DCEC is in a more precarious position.
At the core of the matter is not just the directorate credibility, but also its legitimacy.
For its part, the DCEC has always said it is independent from any form of interference.
They like to cite the Act to buttress their case.
But so explicit is the importance of DCEC independence that it is not enough for DCEC to say they are independent from politicians who control the ruling party.
It is important that in every way the public also perceives the DCEC as independent.
Looking back it’s a pity that over the years DCEC has not been able to prove skeptics and critics wrong. If anything it has played into their hands.
Not without reason, DCEC is increasingly seen as an appendage of the Presidency.
The De Beers/BDP scandal is an opportunity for DCEC to start afresh.
We hope they will not let it pass!
