As hopeful as we may want to be, the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) is fighting a losing battle against corruption.
Corruption today is easily Botswana’s biggest enemy.
It is blazing like wildfire, and unless it is brought under control, it threatens to not only engulf this nation but to literally burn it to ashes.
It would be foolhardy to blame DCEC for the blazing fire of rampant corruption.
The DCEC, to paraphrase a long gone international statesman, was created not to take this country to heaven, but only to save it from hell.
Unfortunately the DCEC seems to also have failed even in this significantly minimum programme of saving this country from hell.
As it is as a nation we are literally falling down the cliff, on our way to hell, thanks to corruption.
And the DCEC seems totally helpless against it.
At the centre of this helplessness has been the fact that not much has been done to reform, reinvent and empower the DCEC.
The DCEC of today is very much the same institution that it was when it was created in the mid-1990s.
Bashing the DCEC will in our opinion not achieve much. Not least because this is not a DCEC leadership problem, rather it has all the hallmarks of political leadership that lacks a will while also is intent on grandstanding.
Instead of giving DCEC more powers, our leaders who are vested with law making powers have concentrated much on self-preservation.
This they have done by ensuring that DCEC while providing them with a public relations tool as evidence of intent to fight corruption, the institution at the same time remained part of their political orbit that really has no clout much less powers to do anything without their consent, or better still do anything that they as leadership did not welcome.
In short the mere existence of the DCEC is a very helpful convenience to our political elite.
Whatever changes that have been introduced in the founding law governing the DCEC over the years were cosmetic, largely aesthetic and laden with window dressing tactics.
As such there has been no substantive changes in giving DCEC more powers that are necessary if it is to meaningfully discharge its mandate.
At a superficial level the DCEC enjoys some full authority to investigate whoever it deems fit.
But investigations alone are not helpful if the litigation powers rest elsewhere, in this instance at the Directorate of public Prosecutions; an institution that is itself still to fully prove its real detachment from the political executive.
This has left the DCEC exposed on all flanks.
On the one side politicians are able to say the DCEC has all the powers necessary, while realistically speaking, the DCEC knows very much its glaring operational limitations.
For those genuinely interested on fighting corruption there is a need for drastic reflection.
This reflection will not be complete if it did not include giving DCEC more powers.
Admittedly, such powers, however drastic will never be enough if they are not accompanied by demonstrable political will to fight corruption.
Corruption has reached the inner core of our social fabric. Other than employment, it is one of the biggest threats that this country now has to contend with.
But for all the malaise we are of the view that it is not yet too late to reverse the rot.
First even before coming up with any changes to the DCEC, our political leadership needs to stop taking DCEC for granted as if it is a straw that is only there to do the elite’s bidding.
Taking the DCEC seriously, and not just as instrument of convenience will go a long way in highlighting and also underscoring the genuine interest that our political elite has in dousing the raging fires of official corruption that are now eroding the moral fibre of this nation.
