President Ian Khama on Friday took a swipe at opposition parties and the media when officially opening the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) Congress in Tonota village.
He said the BDP has maintained a favourable impression in the opinion of the electorate because they have their fingers on the pulse of the public need, which is little of what he can say about the opposition parties in the country.
“We must never falter because this will simply create an opening for a clueless opposition, better fitting the definition of a protest movement which has no coherent policies that would lead this country astray should it by accident ever be in government,” he said.
Khama said the distinct characteristic of all opposition parties in Botswana points to their track record of a lack of harmony, knowledge and ability within their ranks. “Because they remain vulnerable to internal dissension and as preachers of the book of lies, we can only imagine the kind of chaos this nation would experience should they find themselves in government,” he said.
Khama further bashed opposition saying they do not only lack a blue print for governing but have decided to form a coalition bloc simply because no single opposition party alone can compete with the BDP.
He said the opposition parties have failed to provide ideas on how they can resolve the challenges which they as the ruling party are able to address. Instead, he said, opposition parties excel at issuing baseless threats to prosecute everyone ever associated with the BDP government.
He added that “Shame poor things, we are all witnessing their frustrations at their own incompetence and their failings for their inability to persuade the nation that they are better than the BDP. They would have better luck colonizing the moon, where they belong, than ever being in government in this country,” he said.
Khama described opposition parties as unpatriotic citizens who go out of their way to mock their own country and produce alternative facts to deny the BDPs successes and achievements.
He said opposition parties would rather celebrate when the nation is hit by power outages and water shortages.
“We are witnessing the phenomenon of citizens who will never think of living anywhere else in the world besides Botswana because of what it provides for them but who in the same breath never say a single positive utterance in appreciation. They are banging the loudest drum about the need for a change of government whilst unable to show what some new government that exists only in their imagination holds in store for us,” he said.
But Khama urged his party members not to be complacent by assuming that the opposition is incompetent, unpatriotic and power hungry.
Turning his onslaught to the media, Khama labeled the press as the “originators of Donald Trump’s fake news.”
“Their attempts to discredit us through false and baseless allegations which are revived time and time again remind me of a child crying over losing in a game over and over again frustrated that it knows it can never win against bigger and better opponent,” said Khama.
Khama decried the media’s latest criticism of his acquisition of expensive military equipment saying his government is trying to protect the nation by providing soldiers with quality equipment to better defend Batswana.
