I recently read a column by Professor Richard Tabulawa that ended with a call for us to look at the type of person that our education system produces. Much as I found the column interesting, I came to the conclusion that maybe Rre Tabulawa is climbing the tree by its branches.
Sometime ago Rre Khama, whilst addressing BDF officers, raised the subject of virtue. I came to the conclusion that the man may have read Plato’s “The Republic”. It is, I believe, in this book that Plato puts forward that virtue is practicing that which you are good at.
In Setswana culture, we make way for those who are better than us. It is in our culture to know that the greater good of our society is served by allowing those who are most capable, in a particular task, to be the ones given the opportunity to discharge the task.
I have also come to appreciate that much as those of us who have gone through western education are wont to dismiss our mothers and fathers who never went through this system of education, they have something that we do not have. They have faith in their methods of electing leaders and adhere to these. We on the other hand, have written processes for choosing our leaders but have very little understanding and adherence to their underlying values.
Before the advent of writing and monogamous marriages, the tribe always had options of who would be leader. This is because there was always a class of claimants to the throne, unlike the modern situation where members of one family are the only claimants to the throne. Our versatile ancestors could manufacture reasons for eliminating a weak claimant from assuming power. They could, for example, claim that the mother was not the senior wife. The main guiding principle being who was most likely to guarantee the tribe’s continued success.
Writing has ensured that there is documentary evidence of who the successor should be. This, coupled with an inflexible (corrupted) application of the Tswana law of succession has, therefore, robbed tribes of the opportunity to create confusion in a positive way for the greater good of the tribe.
Our people also had a geographical solution to governance problems. If a leader was weak and unable to provide for the tribe, certain sections could resettle in some other area under a more capable leader. Because of our modern laws, this option is not available anymore. The space is now restricted.
I believe that, like us, the British went through the same processes of electing and appointing leaders. But once they became one country, they developed a different platform, which we now pretend to have. They went further to develop processes and structures that ensure that the emergence of a weak leader does not do the country a lot of harm. Their structures have well defined responsibilities and are manned by people properly qualified to discharge those functions. They therefore understand the underlying value of their system of government. Having robbed our tribes of their methods for choosing appropriate leaders we have ourselves adopted application of our imported processes of choosing leaders in a way that does not reflect value – much to our great disadvantage.
If there was an advert for people to apply for the position of diagnosing disease and recommending appropriate treatment, and that a specialist will be appointed to give us guidance on the medical aspects of the job, a lot of us would not apply, because we know we lack the requisite skills to discharge this function, even with a specialist assisting us. But when it comes to parliament we have no such qualms.
This position is so out of odds with that taken by our uneducated ancestors and common sense. It is also against the position of Rre Khama as stated above. One must here note that Rre Khama is leader of an organization that puts forward people with no training in law to be Members of Parliament. What is he doing to improve the situation?
It is generally known that one can use Coca Cola to stop a running stomach. The manufacturers of Coke, on the other hand, sell it as a soft drink to quench thirst. They will not be impressed if this primary purpose was substituted by the secondary purpose of stopping running stomachs. The volumes will not be the same leading to loss of market share and profits. The shareholders will not be amused.
Parliament has passed several motions dealing with the subject of citizen economic empowerment.
One was sponsored by Rre PHK Kedikilwe, calling for establishment of a statutory body to monitor implementation of citizen economic empowerment schemes.
The other was sponsored by Rre Duke Lefhoko, calling for formulation of a citizen economic empowerment policy.
In terms of Section 66 of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, government may from time to time introduce reserved and preferential procurement and asset disposal schemes. Under the amendment the Minister is given the same power under Section 8. The question to ask is whether our members of parliament were aware that in terms of the Interpretation Act, the Ministers power takes precedence over that of government because Section 72 comes after Section 66. How does this new arrangement advance the two motions stated above?
Section 15 of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act deals with termination of membership of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board. In terms of the amendment, a Councilor of a local authority is disqualified from being a member of this board. This quite obviously does not disqualify a Councilor from being a member of any other committee established under the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act. Were members of Parliament aware of this limitation when passing the amendment?
Local Authorities Procurement and Asset Disposal Bill has also been published. This is supposed to cover procurement processes by Local Authorities. The amendment to the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act at Section 3 amends the PPAD Act to cover Local Authorities. What is the intension of the different Ministers and Cabinet?
The Local Authorities Procurement and Asset Disposal Act does not exclude Councilors of Local Authorities from being members of their procurement committees. The nation has been led to believe that they are to be excluded. I could not find any reference to their disqualification in the Bill.
According to the Local Authorities Procurement and Asset Disposal Bill, the scale of preference for citizen contractors shall be based on residency. A citizen contractor resident in an area will get greater preference over a non-resident citizen contractor. Have our members of parliament discussed this with their constituents?
At the heart of the amendment to the PPAD Act lies deep seated mistrust between the Ministry of Finance and the Office of the President under Rre Khama. Rre Mogae was never concerned with whatever praise Rre Khama received, or his intrusion into any sector of government. I however noticed that all their skirmishes revolved around the economy. Rre Mogae was ready and willing to concede ground on any issue but always resisted to any attempts by Rre Khama to intrude into the economic leadership of the country.
Minister of Finance Baledzi Rre Gaolathe is in the mould of Rre Mogae. I believe the amendment was intended to retain control over the citizen economic empowerment direction of the country. After all Rre Gaolathe and Rre Mogae were not keen supporters of citizen economic empowerment. Why was it important for Rre Gaolathe to have power to introduce reservation and preference schemes when he has consistently resisted efforts to introduce these schemes?
Why does he need this power to the exclusion of the rest of government?
At the time that Parliament was discussing Rre Lefhoko’s motion, the Ministry of Finance embarked on what they called a study on citizen economic empowerment. Why was it so important for the Minister of Finance to have power, in the absence of a policy to guide the use of this power? The error in the Ministry of Finance strategy is assuming that Rre Gaolathe or someone like him will always be Minister of Finance. It also suggests that the President does not appoint the Minister of Finance. It lends credence to those who believe that the economic direction of the country is determined from outside.
Can one seriously talk about our Parliament having any intension in formulating any law? Our Parliament is being used for the secondary purpose of passing motions instead of its primary purpose of making laws. This is where I believe our pretence to be superior in governance to our uneducated ancestors falls apart. Until we seriously address how we elect and appoint our leaders, valid suggestions like that of the Professor Tabulawa will fall on deaf ears that pretend to be listening but that cannot hear the nuances of what is being said. Ears like mine. Tone deaf.
We must first address how as a society we have moved from the culture of our ancestors that promoted excellence, of virtue, to the current situation where people knowingly accept positions for which they are not qualified without any sense of shame, a territorial culture based on mediocrity and selfish interest and hatred for fellow citizens. That for me is the start point. Education for work must arise out of a value system.
