With Covid-19 travel restrictions having been lifted, some senior officials at the Government Enclave would be itching to take lucrative, weeks-long international “benchmarking” trips somewhere. There would be some irony in this but if the subject being investigated is botho, which is Botswana’s national principle, they should just go to Zambia. Better still, they can subscribe to the Hakainde Hichilema Facebook page and monitor its comment board. Hakainde Hichilema is Zambia’s beloved new president who is said to be so deep-pocketed that he doesn’t feel the need to pickpocket state coffers – as most African presidents do. His Facebook page has 1.4 million followers and is ably administered.
Officially, Hichilema is the admin but the fact of the matter is that a media liaison officer in the presidency is the one who is actually writing posts. The same thing happens with the pages of all other prominent people – like President Mokgweetsi Masisi and his predecessor, General Ian Khama. Each one of Hichilema’s public engagements is reported on his Facebook page and about 95 percent of the resulting commentary is always positive. Last Thursday night, Hichilema returned from a state visit to Kenya and the following message was posted to the page at 1119 p.m.: “Fellow citizens, by God’s grace we have arrived back safely from the sister Republic of Kenya after taking part in a very successful State visit in which a number of business opportunities were explored, and several Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) signed.” Virtually all responses on the comment board are in the order of “Welcome back home Mr. President” and its variations and you really have to struggle to find a negative response. Posts on the Hakainde Hichilema Facebook page typically rack up more than 1000 comments and an even greater number of likes. There is something that is even more impressive: whether positive or negative, the comments are delivered in fully-formed thoughts as well as grammatically clean and properly-punctuated prose.
The latter is evidence of culture-wide perfectionism which, in turn, reveals superior work ethic. Beloved though Hichilema is, there are some Zambians (very few on his page) who are critical of his performance as president. However, the critical messages they write are always well-reasoned and respectful. Take the comment of Tiza Mukuka Youth Advocate which was response to the post on Hichilema’s return from Kenya: “It’s good to have you back safely and welcome back. However, we must remind you Comrade President Hichilema that you err each time you blame [the Patriotic Front] for everything.” The writer makes the quite profound point that a good leader doesn’t put blame on others and ends on a positive note: “You can do extremely well but what distracts you is within you. We wish you well.” Contrast that with what has become standard fare on the BW Presidency, President Masisi’s official page. Late last year, Masisi expanded his farm-animal philanthropy to bulls and last Thursday, his spokesperson, Batlhalefi Leagajang, released a statement announcing that his principal would be donating bulls in the Moshupa/Manyana constituency the following day.
In the morning of the day of the donation, the post had garnered under 60 mostly negative, poorly-reasoned and improperly punctuated throwaway comments. Here is a sample: “This country is Cursed”, “Mxm yoo kana le ene. Le mmolele gore Batswana bare ba le kgweli ba bo ba le katela ka ga ene”, “Eish,” “Sies” and “Gatwebull.” Most of the comments related to a tragic case (the disappearance and apparent murder of a young boy in Lobatse) that has been turned into a freakish game of social-media football. Tlotso Karema went missing on March 18, 2022 and human remains found on April 14 were confirmed as his on May 30 following DNA tests on the mother. With the incitement of some Facebook gossip-and-slander pages, “Fire!” church prophets and traditional doctors, a highly reckless hashtagged campaign to “bring back Tlotso” has gathered pace.
These parties have managed to turn a heart-wrenching tragedy into a gruesome farce because a grieving mother (who should be helped through a very difficult time) is being encouraged to believe that somehow her dead child can be brought back to life. This will only prolong her grief. For the past several days, a profusion of “bring-back-Tlotso” messages is what the BW Presidency has been getting in response to its posts. These are some of the responses to Leagajang’s press statement: “Gate bull”, “Re batla ngwana koore Le ntse yang baeteledipele ba Botswana agggg”, “His life matters…..Tlotso Karema”, “Kare lona lo busy ka di Bull tsa lona mme ngwana a nyeletse, mapodise ba itirelela ka go kgona go kganela go bonwa ga ngwana. O kae Neo Masisi ka #EsengMoNgwaneng? Kana madi a fedile?” and “Tseo tsadi poo retla di boela a ngwana a ntshiwe polisi.” What is really worrisome is the energy behind this campaign, as measured by the large volume of commentary behind it. There is expectation that everybody else should join this campaign and not long ago, Sunday Standard was slammed (slandered really) for not being part of it. It yet remains unclear how a dead child can be brought back to life.
Likewise, the BW Presidency page didn’t fare well when it posted a video of Masisi officiating at a ceremony to launch a motor dealership owned by former minister, Charles Tibone. One comment reads: “Don’t lie. He is BDP financiers.” BDP stands for the Botswana Democratic Party, the ruling party. Once more, most of the comments want Masisi to bring back Tlotso. Decades from now, sociologists and conflict analysts will marvel at how a nation that enjoyed decades-long reign as Africa’s most sane, ate itself up. At that point, Botswana would be fully African in a Zimbabwe-meets-Democratic Republic of Congo sense. Botho (humanness) was a huge part of that sanity and in making it the fifth national principle, President Sir Ketumile Masire wanted to fortify and prolong that sanity.
However, there has emerged a generation that equates botho with weakness, docility and stupidity. It is for a very good reason that the English say be careful what you wish for and as often happens, what you wish for cannot be returned once they get it. The Botswana/Zambia contrast is interesting in another dimension. Like Batswana, Zambians have always been a peaceful people. However, the previous president, Edgar Lungu, almost upset the applecart when he instituted a kakistocracy (Ancient Greek for government by the worst citizens) and gave clear indication that he wanted to cling to power despite the outcome of the 2021 general election. Ahead of the election, he unleashed terror on the opposition and after losing, had to be convinced by other SADC heads of state to step down peacefully. Thankfully he did and Zambia remains a peaceful nation. Lungu would have been unable to recruit enough people to cause turmoil because Zambians retain their humanness. Botswana might be a different story because the BDP is essentially a political monarchy that has been in power for almost six decades. The drastic decline in botho in Botswana makes anything possible and some opposition leaders have begun to openly call for bloody political violence. That is a combustible mix.
