At least two senior ministers have confirmed that government is in the cusp of a major root to branch facelift that if it comes to pass would change the texture and fabric of it all.
We have to wait and see what becomes of it all save to say it is a long awaited high-stakes restructuring.
And a lot, including political careers depend on it.
If the overhaul is significant, it will be proof enough that at least those in charge of government are fully awake to the prevailing public mood.
It will also be proof enough that the leadership is aware of the problems facing the country.
Successful changes would allow those in charge not only a breathing space but also a real chance of a claw-back.
The operation is being sold as part of a Reset Agenda first announced last year when a few ministers were moved around and some permanent secretaries were shown the door, culminating with the appointment of a Chief of Staff, whose role vis-à-vis that of Permanent Secretary to the President is sadly yet to be fully explained.
Thus any changes within this government are to be welcome and indeed encouraged.
Things are pretty muddled at the moment.
And it doesn’t feel like the nation is getting value worth from government.
In short, Government is faltering under the weight of disunity.
Ministers complain about lack of meaningful guidance from the president.
The opposition leaders for their part say the president is too playful to take the commitments he makes seriously.
If changes do not go far enough, people will with time see them for what they are – a false flag intended to divert attention.
Overall, President Mokgweetsi Masisi has fought courageously against Covid 19.
There is no doubt that more could have been done. But the extent to which his success in fighting Covid has been used against him point to a bigger messaging malaise inside government.
Yes Covid is a global problem, but there is no denying that initially the pandemic was badly underestimated and underplayed inside government.
It was treated as a passing nuisance.
But Covid 19 has persisted.
And its severity in the winter of last year caught Botswana government by surprise.
As it became clearer that more and more people were going to die, the tone changed drastically.
The president was visibly taken aback.
And so too was his team of scientists.
And vaccines slowly became available.
By then it was too late.
But overall Botswana has fared pretty well given the circumstances that have included vaccine hoarding by the West.
Many of these circumstances were well beyond the president’s control.
It is perhaps a sign of Masisi’s beleaguered presidency that even his successes have been successfully put up or used against him.
He has for example been forced to take full and personal ownership for all the Covid 19 mishaps notwithstanding the fact that the rest of the developing world has been at the mercy of the vaccine producing western countries..
Compared to much of sub-Saharan Africa, Botswana is projected to put up a strong economic recovery.
Yet this message too has been swamped by negative sentiment against the president.
This is mainly because Masisi has decimally failed to take charge of things that are well within his control.
An absence of a proper and well-coordinated messaging has meant that there is little to no fighting put up by the presidency.
A simple and honest message stating facts would work wonders.
He has allowed a narrative that he is incompetent to take hold and get stuck on him.
Messaging and communications should become a key component of the Reset Agenda, or else in the end Masisi will look like a helpless animal lost at sea.
If there is anything that president Masisi should be ruing it has to be the fact that he overpromised during the 2019 general elections campaign.
It is this spectre of promises made and then not kept that best explains the ongoing misalignment between those in office and the people they rule – a big gulf that has been a driving force behind growing popular disapproval for the president.
Of course he could not have foreseen the ravages that the economy would with time suffer as a result of Covid-19.
But we can’t hide the fact that his much vaunted Rule of Law now looks dead in the water.
He talks less and less about the 4th Industrial Revolution.
The fight against corruption has become an orphan.
Where are all the people that made Masisi what he is today?
Forget about Ian Khama. He has become contaminated.
Here we are referring to people like General Carter Masire, Lawrence Ookeditse, Samson Moyo Guma and Monametsi Kalayakgosi – to name but a few. They have all fallen by the wayside – ruthlessly if senselessly pushed into the wilderness.
The president is wont to criticising everybody else except himself.
He should learn to see fault in himself as in his stars.
A recent resignation by Mpho Balopi from cabinet has served to lay bare and highlight the full extent of Masisi’s troubles.
Balopi remains Secretary General of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party.
His ambitions are fully documented.
The fact that he and the president are playing for different teams inside the same political party only serves to also highlight the growing confidence of Balopi and also his stature inside the BDP.
Masisi likes to speak big with a particular penchant for hyperbole.
But party political disunity has put paid to his big plans.
The Reset Agenda might yet suffer the same fate.
It will need drivers who do not reach for self-denial when trouble descends.
Time is also running out for Masisi to reboot his presidency ahead of the 2024 General Elections.
Local Government by-elections held late last year have shown how buoyant the opposition is becoming.
They have tasted blood. And all by-elections act as red meat to them.
If those result are anyhow a referendum on Masisi presidency thus far, then the ruling party is in much bigger trouble.
Of the eleven council wards on hand at the time, the BDP could only win three, even then with reduced majorities than was the case in 2019.
To turn back such a tide needs a united ruling party and government.
