Wednesday, November 6, 2024

It is political prostitution!

I am shocked. Almost speechless! During the selection of specially elected MP’s, Barataphathi caucused and worked out a plan that would have seen Gomolemo Motswaledi make it to parliament. It was all systems go until President Ian Khama allegedly got wind of the plan and hatched a strategy that saw many MP’s pull out of the Motswaledi plan. I still don’t understand why some MP’s were furious when Khama labeled them vultures for they are exactly that. Vultures. Infact I’m of the feeling Khama was being diplomatic in using the word vulture for the right word would be political prostitutes. Give them money and you have the leeway to use and even abuse them just like ladies of the night who you just need you to pay out cash and decide on the rounds and positions.

Reports say the BDP has now embarked on a desperate and expensive route of enticing MP’s with money and cabinet positions in a bid to block more defections and win back those who have since defected. It beats me how some MP’s can be so dull not to heed the maxim, once beaten twice shy. It is the same names that betrayed the Motswaledi plan that are being mentioned in the latest “for sale” BDP strategy.

During the Motswaledi plan, Khama’s strategists reportedly phoned almost all MP’s asking them to support Khama’s choice of specially elected MP’s with the promise of cabinet posts in return. MP’s were allegedly asked to charge their phone batteries and await confirmation of their appointments to cabinet. The greedy ones who had been fooled to believe they were in line for cabinet posts slept with their phones under the pillow, on vibrate and high volume mode. I bet some never fell asleep that night. I still don’t understand how grown, big-bellied men can be so lazy not to realize that by endorsing Khama’s chosen outsiders into parliament they were diminishing their chances of making it into cabinet as it was almost a given Khama was going to give preference to his specially elected MP’s.

You see I like Khama for his unpredictability. After making sure that his preferred candidates got the nod he announced his cabinet and shocked many when he excluded all those who had abandoned the Motswaledi plan.

Now if reports that some MP’s who recently defected to the BMD are being enticed with money to retrace their steps are true, we need to be worried about the integrity of our elected representatives. If they can hop between political parties in the manner only synonymous with prostitutes, chasing after money then the electorates need to scrutinise the calibre of candidates before they give them the mandate. First of all it is so embarrassing for someone addressed as Honourable to be selling his allegiance to the highest bidder. If such a person was my father or brother I would disown him. If a man can forgo his integrity at the wave of a cheque leaf then surely he cannot be trusted as a husband and father at home. If you are a wife to an MP who agrees to be bribed into backtracking then you seriously need to be concerned about your own life. Such a person can be dangerous because once he learns that he can gain some money from your death then nothing stops him from doing everything to send you to an early grave.

Fine, we all love money! We all know money is the root of all evil but making money the prostitution way is not only degrading but embarrassing. I mean, what explanation does one give to his constituents? Just how do you face them and explain your bitchy ways?

What is even more disturbing is suspicions that the money being doled out is from the DIS. There is no need for the DIS Director General to throw tantrums because for as long as his organization’s operations are shrouded in secrecy there’ll always be suspicions that DIS is the source of slush funds. DIS, itself having been established through some rather unscrupulous channels can be the only suspect in this bid to rid the BDP of it’s disastrous situation. The DIS, having become just another BDP committee cannot avoid being linked to such reports, rightly or wrongly.

On a different note I hear it is a clash of the Generals at the Office of the President. So President Khama wanted to bow out of the presidency and the Council of Elders stopped him and instead recommended Vice President Merafhe be the one sacrificed and replaced with a Morata-Phathi in the form of either DK or PHK. I hear the no-nonsense Merafhe told them it can only happen over his dead body. If he steps down so should Khama for they have been in this together. Together they orchestrated the fall of the BDP and together they must take responsibility and indeed share in the repercussions. I completely agree with the Vice president that there’s no how he can be the only fall guy for the mess that is happening in the BDP. You see, I have told my friends that Khama must be having a difficult situation on what steps to take in a situation he finds himself in. I said Khama’s English maternal instincts tell him the wisest thing to do would be to throw in the towel and leave the presidency. I argued that his paternal African instincts must be advising him otherwise for in Africa you will never find a leader who owns up to their mistakes and voluntarily steps down from office.

We are not like Europeans and Americans where a cabinet minister can resign simply because a mechanical fault led to a train accident and he was minister of transport. In Africa the minister would simply tell you he is not a mechanic of that train but in developed countries leaders know the buck stops with the highest office and not the mechanic.

I think the council of elders or whoever stopped Khama from stepping down was not being fair on the president. I can imagine the stress that engulfs my president. We are lucky he is a strong character who can withstand harsh and hard situations otherwise he would have made use of the State House rafters. President Khama should not even be consulting the old geezers about his resignation as he is the only one who feels the heat while they enjoy their retirement in peace. It would save Khama some face if he can be bold enough to face the nation and say “I gave it my best shot but I cant seem to be on target and therefore, so long folks”.

Khama can even ask me to pen his resignation speech and trust me even his sworn enemies will have a heart for him. I have no doubt Khama loves his country and his people but the painful truth is people who surround Khama do not share in the same passion as their main interest rests in feeding their tummies. Khama has never really gone through what a normal Motswana goes through from birth, childhood and adult life and as such one would expect people who surround him to lecture him on expectations of a normal Motswana who goes through the hardships of selling traditional brew to send kids to school. Someone who knows how frustrating it is to apply for a job and be rejected. Someone who knows how it is to be a subordinate at work.

Khama’s advisors should impress to him how Batswana love their freedom and are not happy to be ordered to sleep at a time chosen by a president when they are not even sure that the president himself sleeps at that particular time. Another aspect that Khama should seriously consider is to avoid making appointments that can make it difficult for him to vacate the State House. By continuously appointing his friends to higher positions Khama might find himself having difficulties when he finally decides to call it quits. It has happened to Mugabe when he wanted to step down and his cronies stopped him from doing so for fear of being in trouble with the new administration. For example I do not want to believe Isaac Kgosi would be comfortable with Khama stepping down as this might lead to the disbanding of DIS by whoever takes over from Khama. This organ has been viewed by many as serving Khama’s and not national interests. The DIS is viewed as Khama’s baby and from the look of things he will go down with it. I’m just saying.

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