Whether by design or not, it appears almost all our ministers are battling with a credibility crisis. If they are not implicated in corruption allegations, then they are speaking out of turn.
Remarks by Minister of Land and Housing during the debate on the Public Health Bill are totally unfortunate.
In a normal working government, the leader of government should have publicly reprimanded the minister or at the very least distance government from such remarks.
But then ours is neither a normal nor a functional government.
Accountability is not only anathema it also is a foreign concept to our ministers.
It came as a shock when the minister, a former Educator diagnosed Member of Parliament for Chobe Gibson Nshimwe with HIV/AIDS merely because the Member for Chobe had spoken strongly against the draft Public Health Bill.
That a cabinet minister can stoop so low as to allow himself to spew and peddle suck reckless words at a time when Botswana has made tremendous progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS speaks volumes about the quality of our leadership.
To argue that because Honorable Nshimwe rejects a law that threatens to violate the rights of those with HIV/AIDS, means that he could himself possibly be HIV positive, is not only absurd but irrational and goes to show how far we still have to go before some of our law makers can even start to internalize the most elementary principles that need to be in place when it comes addressing serious issues such as HIV/AIDS.
Mokalake’s remarks will encourage stigma, engender exclusion and incite public scorn of those with HIV/AIDS.
We do not know how Mokalake treats his family members who have HIV/AIDs.
But from what he has said in parliament, we can only shudder with foreboding.
Does Mokalake not know anyone either in his family or constituency who has HIV/AIDS?
Is the way he talked to Nshimwe the embodiment of the treatment Mokalake display to such individuals?
We note that Mokalake has himself not declared his HIV/AIDS status.
In a country where one in six of adults live with HIV/AIDS Mokalake should be sensitive to what his public utterance on this disease can do.
His words have the potential to take Botswana’s fight against HIV/AIDS two steps backwards just when Botswana was starting to make headway in the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
It is also disturbing that Members of Parliament have made it a habit to speak recklessly and disparaging while in parliament because they are covered by Parliamentary immunity.
We hasten to advice Mokalake that the immunity is for MPs to debate issues without fear or favour and not necessarily a licence to abuse others as well as evade public accountability.
Any self respecting leader who takes himself seriously would never have made such unwise remarks. If he was struggling to understand the issues we maintain that it would have been better to have kept quiet altogether.
It is also of equally shocking that the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), a party that Mokalake represents has to date made no gesture to admonish or condemn utterances by the minister.
Despite the seriousness of the remarks, the ruling party has been so mum that elsewhere it would be assumed that Mokalake’s remarks are official party position.
From Mokalake’s comments one gets the impression that the remarks are a result of a thought process that associates HIV/AIDS with sexual deviance. In our view this is wrong and should not be condoned.
It is a result of a mind that cares less about those affected by HIV/AIDS. This is a man who appears to have no interest in discussing the delicate issues of privacy and human rights approach to disclosure of one’s status.
Under this clearly ignorant batch of leaders can we be able to transform or make progress as a people?
Perhaps this remark should trigger a debate on the current crop of leaders and appointments to cabinets.
We need to deploy not only the best brains willing to serve but leaders with a sense of empathy who at all times will speak from an informed perspective irrespective of the issues at hand.
People like Mokalake who think before they speak are not what Botswana need.
We cannot afford to have a situation where elected representatives are unaware of the duties and responsibilities that come with holding a public office.
More embarrassing is that it had to take a great deal of effort to make it clear to Mokalake that his utterances were innately wrong.
This level of dumbness from a senior Minister is not only unpardonable but damaging in the long run. We therefore call upon the minister to issue a public apology because his utterances did not only offend the concerned legislator but to a great deal dealt a big blow to Botswana’s campaign in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
