All people with their brains in place will find no fault in the Leader of Opposition addressing Kgotla meetings. Infact it’s such a shame we find ourselves having to debate about it. Crucify him for everything else but this time Saleshando takes the crown as the most innovative and progressive Leader of Opposition ever.
I find it shocking, or rather absurd, that some people from opposition parties, especially members of the BMD and BNF are celebrating government’s decision to stop Saleshando from accessing the Kgotla. Their very apparent climax at Saleshando’s gagging by the ruling party operatives is so embarrassing, to say the least.
Yes, we all know the beef that exists between the BCP and other opposition parties but one would have thought sanity will prevail this time around and the opposition collective would show some vision and maturity. Well, as for the BDP, reasons are obvious as to why Saleshando’s intentions had them panic like prostitutes under the police spotlight.
Saleshando’s move to address Kgotla meetings validates him as a prolific, robust and top notch politician with heaps to offer as an alternative to the BDP. The BDP can therefore be excused for developing goose bumps at Saleshando’s display of unconventionality.
But for the Umbrella party, it beats me how myopic they are not to see the bigger picture in the precedence that Saleshando is trying to set. Their partisan intoxication, concocted with their disdain for everything that is Saleshando, blinds them from seeing that they too stand to benefit from this arrangement.
We are told that the Umbrella party, now christened the UDC, has been successfully registered which therefore means they are likely to take over the LOO seat from Saleshando. One would have thought the UDC would therefore readily embrace Saleshando’s idea because if he is permitted to address the Kgotla meetings, the permission will automatically pass on to the next Leader of Opposition who might be from the UDC.
But before I tear the UDC apart, let me absolve their parliamentary representatives from the lunacy that is displayed by their followers. I attended the press conference that was convened by Saleshando where he told the media that he had briefed the opposition caucus on his plans to address Kgotla meetings and his proposal was endorsed by all the opposition parties represented in Parliament, unanimously. That is a sign of maturity on the part of BMD and BNF MP’s. What members of these parties fail to realise is, for as long as they behave in ways that attack Saleshando, he is portrayed as a victim crucified for trying to reach out to the people and they are actually endearing him more to the people as they sympathize with him. Opposition parties always blame BDP MP’s, rightly so, for their tendency to always vote against everything that comes from opposition MP’s regardless of how noble or beneficial to the nation that may be.
Now how are we expected to sympathize with the opposition if they too find it admissible to oppose everything that comes from the rival BCP with no reasons beyond their umbrella fallout? We continue to see President Khama exercise some of the presidential powers that none of his predecessors ever utilised and it is difficult to fault him on the basis he is doing what has never been done by former presidents. So, it is only plausible that we extend the same indulgence to Saleshando because it is not his fault that his predecessors slept on their constitutional perks.
Of course Saleshando’s meetings will give some mileage to the BCP and the question should be, so what? The BDP is using its grip on government machinery to advance their political agenda and that comes with their incumbency. If Saleshando’s position allows him access to government resources, why should he shy away from using his incumbency to propel his political aspirations? Only fools don’t take advantage of the sunshine to make hay. I have had the opportunity to travel with Cabinet ministers to Kgotla meetings in the past and I always observed how they would use the opportunity to attend to party engagements immediately after the Kgotla meeting.
A minister would schedule a series of Kgotla meetings in his constituency because that guarantees him government transportation. You then realise the real motive is to address political meetings after the Kgotla meeting. Surely Saleshando is smart upstairs and as such he cannot go to the Kgotla and start talking about the BCP. However, I would advise him not feel ashamed to use the opportunity to address members of his party after he is done at the Kgotla. It is normal practice.
Who wouldn’t utilise the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone? Afterall I understand his Kgotla address is confined to sensitizing the nation on the role of the office he currently holds.
As he has already outlined, all he will be doing is to address the Kgotla meetings in his capacity as leader of the opposition so as to contribute to the development of our democracy because no democracy can ever be regarded as mature when the role of the opposition is not well understood by the general public.
Saleshando is right to assert that it is only when the public appreciates the role of the opposition that they can also be held accountable for their actions, as they should be, given that they occupy their seats in Parliament at a cost to the nation. How do you prevent someone who leads a group that garnered 47 percent of the popular vote from addressing the nation? Like I mentioned, we know how Cabinet ministers use their official entitlements to pursue their political and personal agendas. Perhaps that explains why the usually pompous Minister Masisi feels ashamed to concede he is the brains behind the Saleshando saga.
Really, this Masisi chap can’t be serious. I mean, he is the minister in the office of the presidency and from what we are told, the directive to halt Saleshando’s meetings came from his office and as such it surprises me that he is distancing himself from the fiasco. Is the minister suggesting to us that someone out there decided to play April’s fool on Saleshando, in September? Is the minister telling us the South East District Commissioner lied to Kgosi Mosadi Seboko and Honourable Saleshando when he told them he had received a directive from the Presidency? Was the Clerk of the National Assembly high on some drugs when he called Saleshando telling him there was an order from the Presidency barring Saleshando from using his official car to the Kgotla meetings?
Come on Masisi, stop giving the Presidency a bad name. Stop taking us for fools. If it wasn’t you, then who was it?It is my hope Saleshando will seek answers on who really was behind the sabotage of his planned Kgotla meetings. It’s so disgusting that we have a paranoid ruling party always too quick to press panic buttons even when a fly sits on the wall. How sad that we have a hopeless, self-hating and self-destructive opposition. Pity we are a docile and submissive nation that never seek explanations. Sad!
