They are the luckiest sons I have ever known. Looking at their demeanour, they surely are convinced it is God and then them. In fact, there are times they behave as though God comes second. The Khama brothers are living in paradise. They run this country as though it is exclusively theirs and the rest of us are just visitors. What the Khama brothers want, the Khama brothers get. You can even see from their reactions to our complaints that they believe we are crazy to question their authority.
At times I ask myself, is it because these guys didn’t spend much time at school and they missed on the opportunity to learn that their father just happened to be the first president of this republic and not the owner of this country? Kana these guys behave as though we are in this country at their mercy and that, as expected of visitors, we should stop whining about how they run this country. I have never seen people as spoilt as the Khama brothers. All along I have been fooling myself that Tshekedi Khama is far much better than his brother, Ian, when it comes to abuse of authority and misuse of public funds. How wrong I was.
I wept reading a litany of Tshekedi’s anarchical governance at the Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO). It emerged two weeks back during deliberations at the Parliamentary Committee on Statutory Bodies and Public Enterprises that Tshekedi has flouted public procurement procedures and sanctioned 100 million Pula of illegal transactions. Tshekedi’s Permanent Secretary and BTO Chief Executive Officer blew the lid on Tshekedi’s reign of terror at the tourism body. Boy even God doesn’t have it that easy. The will of God is not always done on earth as does that of Tshekedi and his brother, Ian. It has been revealed that Tshekedi disregarded all counsel from the BTO chief and literally took over the running of the organisation. He couldn’t even listen to his permanent secretary who holds that position by virtue of academic qualification as opposed to him who is only there through political and perhaps family association.
Tshekedi is said to have instructed the CEO to implement a new organisational structure which will cost this country a whooping P22 million which was not budgeted for. As if that was not enough, Tshekedi is said to have put his preferred names for the vacancies that came with the new structure. Some of them do not even qualify for the jobs they are being offered. Tshekedi is reported to have sanctioned the opening of BTO offices in foreign countries such as Dubai with no regard for financial prudency. Tshekedi is the only minister who has an official ‘private’ jet at his disposal. It is only him and Ian who enjoy that privilege. Ian has the DIS and it has since emerged Tshekedi has also set up his intelligence unit at his ministry. I was taken aback to hear that Tshekedi also wants to take the national airliner, Air Botswana, under his ministry. The stupid reasoning is that Air Botswana is mostly utilised by tourists. What a dumb excuse! Should we now move Botswana Meat Commission to the ministry of Foreign Affairs because most of their beef is consumed outside the country in Europe? We all know the real reason for this move. Tshekedi wants full control of Air Botswana because of hideous interests. What pisses me off in all these careless spending of our money by the Khama brothers is how Batswana appear indifferent to the revelations. They are just sitting there and making it an issue of the private media to make noise. They nod in agreement every time they are told there is no money to provide them with schools and hospitals yet the Khama brothers are financing their lives of comfort with our money.
Whoever bewitched this nation is heartless. I have never seen a docile nation like Batswana. Batswana are people that you can pee on their mouths while they ululate at you for the bravado. I don’t understand what makes Batswana to think it is the duty of the media and opposition politicians to demand accountability from the ruling leaders. The P100 million that Tshekedi blew out at BTO is enough to build a clinic at your village but you still find yourself scared to frown at Khama when he visits your village. There are times I just get angry at God for making me a citizen of this phucked up country. Just next door in South Africa they demand accountability from their leaders but here in our country you are labelled ill-mannered if you ask questions. We took care of the Khama brothers from their infancy during the time of their father’s presidency and it now seems they feel entitled to everything they want even in their adulthood. Just how do we allow these brothers to purchase expensive aeroplanes for their personal use and still afford them the audacity to tell us they cannot provide for the nation because there is no money? Nya bagaetsho, let us stop handling the Khama brothers as if we owe them anything. This looting of public resources must be stopped before we become the next Zimbabwe.
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