As a nation we will have to change and adjust with changing times. The time when we used to rely on the goodwill of our leaders to guide and advice us has gone past.
This Nation lacks jubilant civil organizations to rise to the occasion and call the government of the day to be answerable to its misdeeds. The events that have been unfolding cannot be left unchallenged.
The state media’s one sided reporting of events that are happening in the country is one area that as a nation we should raise register our displeasure.
More to the point is the current circus we are watching on national television where only the minister and BEC officials are given airtime on the state media. We have learnt that students in various schools sitting for the Junior Certificate Examination were unhappy with the way the listening comprehension was done. Teacher unions have long asked the state media to run their side of the story but the director has vehemently refused to listen.
Second to note is commanding of the Botswana police service. For the past four weeks the teacher unions had sought permits in various parts of the country to hold public rallies and we learnt that the commissioner of police has been asked by Hon. Minister Moitoi not to grant the union such permits. Is the commissioner of police is not aware that such action is tantamount to denial of freedom of expression which every citizen is entitled to given by the constitution of the country?
The country is going into a third month without a substantive minister of Defence and Security.
This has never happened anyway in the world where leaders are democratically elected and yet the nation is at ease failing to call upon the president to make an appointment. Minister Motsumi is over burdened with issues affecting public service, therefore she will not cope with two portfolios. In Botswana cabinet reshuffling , it seems is a taboo because we hardly see such action being done dispite some of the ministers failure to perform. Our president once said he was going to crack the whip for those people who did not deliver. As people will be reading this article in South Africa where the interests of a nation are taken heed such an exercise has been carried out where seven ministers have been dropped and others have been appointed. Therefore as a nation its time we make such demands.
We want to see delivery being monitored. I still wonder how the Hon. Minister of Education and her assistant will escape that reshuffle.
Lastly the government is watching BEC splash money all around as the moderators are traversing the whole country with the hope that they find course work marked, though they are well aware that teachers are adamant that they will not mark unless and until negotiations have been concluded. The Nation as well is not interested to know as to what is happening. Let us start now to demand answers we cannot sit on hoping that things will normalize.
We call upon civil organizations that claim to fight for people’s rights such as DITSHWANELO, BOCONGO, BONELA, trade unions together with political parties in the country to come to the party. It is better they act now or things will deteriorate.
