Very few if any of the Ministers of Government want to take part in a conversation that steers towards  electricity shortage in the country.
Electricity ÔÇô or the lack of it is a taboo subject.
Nobody in government wants to talk about it.
Not even the Minister responsible for electricity.
It is like they hope by making no mention of the situation, the troubles will on their own go away the next morning.
Like water, electricity is yet another subject that those in power would rather not talk about.
Every time an ordinary mortal tries to ask the question to establish just what the problem is, they are reminded how lucky they are to go a few hours with electricity. “In other countries people go for days without food,” says one respectable socialite.
How sad!
The manner with which our government is trying to coerce us to behave as if there is nothing wrong when we can go for close to six hours a day without power is indicative of the kind of society that our leaders are trying to establish.
Our leaders want to create a society of loonies who can neither think nor question anything that comes from the leadership.
Our leaders lack authenticity.
Most of all they also lack empathy and compassion.
Instead of them showing us that they are with us in this misery, they tell us that by complaining about the power cuts we are no different from spoilt little children from wealthy families.
How sad!
Tragically, not much better can be said about the opposition politicians.
They too are nowhere to be seen.
None of them has as yet come forward to tell the nation that they too feel the plight that the entire country that has neither electricity nor water.
Batswana are like a forsaken people.
The party in power is united with the opposition to take us for granted.
The electricity situation has now been compounded by water shortages.
Some parts of the Greater Gaborone are now getting used to regard it as a new normal going for close to a week without running water.
This is not the country we set out to create.
We cannot blame government for low rains.
But we surely can blame them for not planning ahead of time.
It was clear for as long as ten years ago that Gaborone Dam was drying up on account of low rainfalls. But no effort was put on track to plan to ferry water from the north in requisite amounts.
Just as we failed to plan ahead of time for electricity even as it was known for as long as 20 years ago that demand was far outstripping supply, we failed to plan with water.
The double-whammy of water and electricity is right before our eyes dissipating the once promising economy and turning it into a wasteland.
