It is a fair trade, is it not, especially considering how some Batswana positively think of our president, Robert Mugabe?
Recognising how much admiration Mugabe seems to have not only among Batswana but across SADC and Africa itself, it is fair enough to ask, is it not?
So many times, we have heard that a prophet is without honour in his own land.
True.
The title of this offering of mine today suggests that one of two of these leaders is better than the other.
Khama pleased Zimbabweans when he staunchly stood with Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC.
Khama increased his popularity with Zimbabweans when he literally forced SADC to debate the Zimbabwe problem.
Zimbabweans appreciated his “lone wolf” crusade against Mugabe when the likes of Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma were only too happy to look the other way while Mugabe abused us.
Today, however, I cannot escape noticing the similarities in political stupidity of both our nations.
I cannot walk away from the choices made for political expediency while betraying the people’s intentions.
The people of Botswana are not amused by the fact that their president does not care to travel abroad as the Chief Executive Officer of Botswana.
He is said to shun international meetings and sends his Foreign Affairs Minister or other official representative instead.
The people of Botswana worry about missed opportunities at which their leader could sell more of their nation and bring Botswana up as a regional voice to be listened to.
While the people of Botswana wonder when the last time their president travelled out of Botswana, while the people of Botswana want to push their President to travel more and sell Botswana, we, Zimbabweans, do not have such a problem.
People say Mugabe does not care about us but I do not agree with them because Mugabe cares enough to visit Zimbabwe.
The man is always on a plane to places where he is not wanted or places where he has no role to play but, still, he cares enough to visit us in Zimbabwe once in a while during his endless busy schedules outside our borders ÔÇô trips that have nothing to do with our nation.
If Mugabe stayed home like Ian Khama does, we would be a happier people.
For some reason, we expect Mugabe to “stay home and deal with the pressing issues the nation is facing”.
Are you kidding me?
Mugabe can go wherever he wants and the more he stays out of the country the better for us all.
The thing that worries me is that he is using state money for useless trips, most of which personal and having nothing to do with the nation.
Today, both Mugabe and his wife are ailing with undisclosed illnesses and the travelling, the entourages and the medical expenses are all on the backs of the few Zimbabwean employees whose numbers are dwindling by the day.
Late last year, Mugabe took his annual “leave” to the Far East with his wife, children, son-in-law and others, all at the nation’s expense. He and his wife even extended the “leave” by weeks yet he still returned home alone.
He told those who cared that the wife had remained behind recuperating from an appendicitis operation. She came back a few weeks ago laid low but is now said to be in Dubai for further medical attention.
Meanwhile, the opposition rejoices in opposing each other regardless of how their disunity benefits the ruling party.
Morgan Tsvangirai’s opposition party that Ian Khama supported at the expense of Mugabe’s Zanu-Pf, mutated into at least three political parties none of which powerful enough to make a difference in the nation.
First to break away was Tsvangirai’s Secretary General, Welshman Ncube, who refused to give up the party name causing the MDC to be called by an extra letter as in MDC-N (for Ncube), MDC-T (for Tsvangirai), MDC Renewal Team (led by Tendai Biti who became Secretary general after Ncube) and MDC-99 (for Job Sikhala) who has since rejoined Tsvangirai.
Biti’s group took with it more than twenty elected Members of Parliament although real ideological differences are limited to the simple fact that Tsvangirai had remained at the leadership for too long yet failed to dislodge Mugabe.
Forgetting about uniting to remove a common enemy, Tsvangirai courted those people humiliated by Mugabe, such as Zimbabwe’s former Vice President Joyce Mujuru while at the same time wishing Armageddon on Biti and those who followed him.
Indeed, a few weeks ago, Tsvangirai found it best for him to petition Parliament to have those MPs who rebelled against him to be expelled out of Parliament because they had “crossed the floor” by joining another political party.
Mugabe, as expected, obliged and dismissed the 21 MPs from parliament.
A few days ago, Tsvangirai’s faction stated that they will not be participating in the forthcoming by-elections to fill the now empty parliamentary seats.
They said that they will not participate in the by-elections because the voters’ roll is in a shambles, needs to be updated and electoral laws are not being followed.
A few days ago, notorious Zanu-PF motor mouth, Jonathan Moyo, could only thank Morgan Tsvangirai for “donating parliamentary seats to Zanu-Pf”.
Moyo, who is in parliament on a Mugabe-donated seat of Specially Elected MP, is salivating at the prospect of regaining the Tsholotsho parliamentary seat he had lost to the MDC in the last elections.
Already, Nikuv, the shadowy Israeli company largely credited with tempering with the voters’ roll and the elections to give Mugabe a massive win over Tsvangirai in the last elections is reported to have started “cleaning up” the voters’ roll in readiness of the by-elections.
I am thinking of the opposition parties in Botswana.
I ask if the differences between the MDC factions are so divergent that all factions prefer the total annihilation of the others leaving the target stronger to vanquish all the factions.
Is Botswana learning anything from what is happening so close to them?
Ncube’s faction had been totally disgraced at the polls and was of no consequence yet Biti’s faction spent so much time trying to include them in their faction which had twenty-one MPs.
Then like before, Ncube’s faction started fighting for party positions as they entered unification with Biti’s faction. As the struggle continued, Tsvangirai’s MDC caused the expulsion of the “rebel” Biti MPs.
A lesson to every facet of Botswana politics, especially the ruling party, the opposition and the fragmented opposition.
We now tend to fight for a leader or a party but worry little about fighting for those who elected us.
What Tsvangirai did to those MPs who were in opposition to Mugabe is no different from the horrid weekly yapping of BCP young puppies who bad-mouth other opposition MPs because their own leader was rejected at the polls.
In my years and years at this Sunday Standard, I found out how Batswana used the words “unity of purpose” while they meant the exact opposite.
How and when will Botswana learn if it cannot learn from the dangers that we are flashing at Botswana’s own stoep?
Giving you Mugabe in exchange for Khama will not solve anything because all leaders must stay within the confines of their required services to their people.
Each nation, each people have their preferences, minimums and expectations based on their cultural, historical and current levels of “development”.
We, in Zimbabwe, wish we didn’t know now what we didn’t know about Mugabe when we let him become our leader.
Botswana, look up! Zimbabwe is giving you lessons every day; please pay attention.
