For more than a decade now, a man who works in Gaborone has been commuting from Kopong, which is about 20 kilometres away. All along he has been picking up hitchhikers on either trip to make himself a little fuel money. The rules of this trade are simple: hitchhikers walk to the stop and thumb down oncoming cars; when a car stops they tell the driver their destination and if it is the right car, they get in. Upon arrival, they pay the driver and part ways. Via this arrangement, the Kopong man has been picking up four passengers for each trip. Never once has he – or the hitchhikers – needed anybody’s help in the conduct of this simple trade. However, there has been a new and dramatic development.
Of late, a gang of ill-mannered youths who mostly wear machesa (Converse All-Star) shoes have commandeered the Supa Save bus stop in Mogoditshane, which is part of a national road administered by the Ministry of Transport and Communications and policed by the Mogoditshane police station as well as the highway patrol teams. With nobody asking for their help, these gratingly loud-voiced young men tout routes along the Gaborone-Molepolole and Metsimotlhabe-Lentsweletau roads. Nobody comes to the stop or gets into a car because they shouted “Molepolole” or “Lentsweletau.” However, if a hitchhiker gets into a car after they have done this, then the motorist has to pay them a fee that only they determine. They typically insult, curse and wish grave misfortune upon motorists who refuse to pay.
Says the Kopong man: “They say things like “O tsile go swa. Koloi eo e tsile go menoga ka wena. Ba makgakga tota, e seng makgakganyana.” By that he means that the cars of motorists who refuse to pay them will roll over along the way and that they will die as a result. He adds that they typically put satanic emphasis on “die.”
A Gaborone resident who just happened to be on his way to Molepolole says that when he waved them off, they notified him of what amounted to a ban: “You will never ever pick up hitchhikers at this stop.” A martial artist, he is good with both his feet and hands and says that if he ever goes to Molepolole, he will certainly pick up passengers if he feels like it. And therein lies a problem that portends tragedy down the road.
The self-appointed touts come prepared to fight because that is exactly what the insults that they hurl at “non-cooperating” motorists are meant to provoke. Down the road lies an ugly incident in which someone – either a motorist or tout himself – will either get injured or killed. Only then will law enforcement make its presence felt.
Sunday Standard has reported on similar extortion that now happens at Gaborone City Council-owned parking lots in town. Hordes of self-appointed carpark marshals have commandeered parking lots and more than half of them engage in disagreeable conduct. Apparently, carpark marshalling is lucrative business – one can net P500 tax-free a day. This is how it works: a car-park marshal directs incoming vehicles to empty parking bays. With no fee being either discussed or agreed upon, they mark the vehicles by placing numbered paper tags on the windshield.
While the drivers are away running their errands, the marshals patrol parking areas in order to prevent vehicle damage and vehicle or property theft. When the drivers return, the marshals ask for “something” (code for a tip basically, not payment) and it is up to the drivers to decide whether or not to pop out something and how much. A Gaborone man recalls a car-park marshal flinging a P2 coin with which he tried to tip him, saying as he did, “What do you want me to do with P2?” In some cases, drivers who don’t give a tip are seen off the parking lot with very nasty remarks, some bordering on criminal insult. Some, especially female motorists, are habitually subjected to extreme verbal abuse when they choose to not use this service.
What these people are doing is extortion – which is a form of robbery. The best part? Both the Gaborone City Council and the police know about this. In the case of the main mall, the touts ply their odious trade a few metres from the Central Police Station. It is just a matter before these extortion scams are exported to villages.
While these two examples might seem to single out people from a particular socio-economic class, citizen economic empowerment through disempowering other citizens occurs across the board.
In January this year, the government imposed an import ban on 16 vegetables in order to stimulate domestic production and bolster food security. While the ban has economically empowered citizen farmers, it has also disempowered consumers.
The country is still grappling with seemingly insurmountable supply problems that have driven prices up (those of ginger doubled and those of onions tripled), caused acute shortage for some vegetables and resulted in unscrupulous farmers flooding the market with under-developed farm produce. Some supermarkets are now selling green tomatoes and under-developed onions the size of morula fruits. Sunday Standard has reported the case of an elderly female shopper at a Gaborone supermarket who was heard to remark that she had passed by the tomatoes shelf earlier and assumed that they were not in stock because she couldn’t see any red – the colour of ripe, pot-ready tomatoes. The ones on the shelf were still green.
During the winter session of parliament, Maun West MP, Dumelang Saleshando, raised this issue through a question. He proposed that out of realisation that domestic production hadn’t improved and that prices were going through the roof, the government should consider a partial (and not total) import ban. The MP pointed out the oddity of vegetable prices rising exponentially at the same time that a supposedly concerned government had just zero-rated some food items to make them affordable. Saleshando also alleged that far from improving food security as has been officially stated, the alleged (and real) purpose of the ban was to surreptitiously bolster the commercial success of horticultural projects owned by the ruling elite.
As a demographic and as Sunday Standard reported last week, the elite in general are hoarding land across the country. The story in question was about how the deep-pocketed legally trick land from the state by claiming that they will develop portions of it for public benefit. Thereafter, they legally change use of such land from communal to commercial.
Public procurement is another area where citizens empower themselves by disempowering other citizens. In one too many cases, government tenders are awarded on the understanding that citizens being empowered will in turn empower other citizens. The tender bids actually reflect generous salaries that would purportedly be paid to citizen employees. However, after winning tenders, citizen employers underpay citizen employees.
While it is not given enough credit, crime – which comes at a cost to society – is now one of major ways through which real economic empowerment happens. The Sebina/Gweta MP, Paulson Majaga, has pointed the finger of blame at mid-level managers in the civil service. He said that in March this year during a debate on the budgetary allocation for the Ethics and Integrity Directorate. Majaga described mid-level managers as “the most corrupt in the civil service,” adding that while some of them might earn a monthly salary as low as P6000, “they are building houses that cost as much as P4.2 million in Gaborone North, houses that we as MPs can’t afford to build.”
As just one example, Sunday Standard has it on good authority that some mid-level officers at the education ministry, who mysteriously lived way beyond their means, channelled students with good enough grades to get into the long-established University of Botswana to fly-by-night universities. Those students received sub-standard education, can’t find employment after graduating and all too often, have to settle for jobs that pay peanuts.
On account of being more confused than motorists negotiating traffic lights at the new Block 5 overhead bridge, the government has generally not been able to make competent decisions on citizen economic empowerment. At the most basic level, the issue is semantic. The term “citizen economic empowerment” was franchised into public consciousness two decades ago by Louis Nchindo, the former Managing Director of the Debswana Diamond Company. It would later emerge that he was using “citizen” in singular form and that the citizen he was referring to was himself.
The government itself uses “citizen” in the ordinary sense of a legally recognized national of Botswana – which definition qualifies people who don’t need economic empowerment to get it. On the basis of the latter, at least one ruling-party leader (former Shoshong MP Duke Lefhoko) has stated that for purposes of economic empowerment, only indigenous Batswana should be considered citizens.
