When I was still a small boy occasionally we would come across a magazine with pictures of food. We would then proceed to “eat” the food. Sometimes we would lay ground rules such that I would eat what is on the left page, and the other would eat what was on the right.
In my view we should sometimes approach national issues from this pretend perspective. There is no point in saying I am right and you are wrong. Let us just assume that I happen to eat on the left page and you on the right page.
For merit republicans, the concentration of the Khama family in the highest echelons of state power presents an opportunity to prove once and for all that merit has nothing to do with family ties.
If the Khama family, having amassed state power, fail to make a significant difference in the lives of Botswana, ordinary people with no family name to speak about will be reassured that they are no lesser human beings.
We must discount people like Rre Masire and Rre Mogae for though they may want to project themselves as self made, they were really beneficiaries of the Khama name.
Of course, even if they failed it was difficult to attribute their failure to the Khamas. Now we have a situation where there is no room for the Khamas to hide. If they succeed such can be attributed to them, but if they fail they cannot attribute such to anybody. In effect the appointment of Rre Tshekedi has raised the stakes for the Khamas.
The appointment also makes the Khamas vulnerable. A public service keen to once and for all get rid of hereditary superiority is being presented with a unique opportunity to once and for all bury the notion that some people are born superior to others. A public service that knows that it is more intellectually gifted than the Khamas may be tempted to withhold its intellectual prowess so that it avoids perpetuating the Khama myth.
The concentration of the Khamas in the highest echelons of power also makes them vulnerable to manipulation. Given that they are unlikely to want to be seen to be failing as a family to resolve the problems of this country, they are likely to seek allies whom they believe will help preserve the family name. In fact if one were to believe the gossip doing the rounds, the appointments that are being made in certain key positions seem to indicate a strategy to do exactly this.
One of the key strategies adopted by Khama the Great was to align himself with the white man.
This ensured that he emerged senior to his otherwise superior Tswana dikgosi. One can detect hints of this strategy in Ian Khama’s appointments. We have a white Judge President of the Court of Appeal and word has it that we are likely to get a white Chief Justice.
This strategy is, however, flawed because during the colonial era the white man had something to give. As the colonial power the white man could use his law making power and colonial armies to legitimize things. The whites being appointed by Khama have no power, they are consumers of what he has.
The concentration of the Khamas makes them a tradable commodity.
They will be useful for so long as one of them holds the highest office in the land but will depreciate rapidly once his term of office comes to an end. In fact even their opponents now have a clearly defined target.
If you want to win state power you just distinguish between the Khamas and the BDP. Even BDP commoners who are alienated by the Khamas will be more willing to work with the opposition around the rallying point of dislike of hereditary superiority.
I once nearly got hammered by a young man in Mahalapye for suggesting that in much the same way as it is said in the Bible that sin came to the world by man, Adam, and was removed by man, Jesus, the BDP came into power by a kgosi, Seretse, and it will get out by a kgosi, Ian.
The young man did not take kindly to my suggestion and was really pissed off. We did not get to exchange blows because I held my ground and told him that if he disagreed with what I was saying that was fine with me, but that I did not have to tailor my views to his tastes.
The Khamas also have a clearly unfavourable attribute. The twins have married white women and the eldest sister has also married a white man. Their children are very visibly not black.
I know some may want to suggest that we are a non racial society, but when the children of the founding father of the nation marry only white people, it becomes difficult to sell the non-racial society ideal. They will be the last people able to sell this ideal. In fact their marriage pattern places them on the defensive.
When one combines the appointments of whites to the position of Judge President of the Court of Appeal, to the position of Chief Justice and the marriage patterns of the Khamas one cannot help but conclude that Botswana is getting too white at the top.
People may keep their silence but they are not necessarily impressed with the emerging pattern. In fact, the recent happenings at BMC, where it seems it is white people who are at the forefront of the demise of the organization to the detriment of black indigenous farmers, provides those of us who have always known that white people are as prone to waywardness as black people with the evidence to support our position.
There is a significant number of people who are relatively well off who do not see themselves as owing the BDP and the Khamas their success. Some of these people are, or were supporters of the BDP. Some of them will see an emerging concentration of the Khamas at the top as a threat to their property and personal rights. The appointments of whites to the top of the judiciary will aggravate their fear. They will therefore be more sympathetic to a political process that will cut the Khamas down.
I know for a fact that GaMmangwato was not strong because the Khamas were concentrated at the main kgotla. GaMmangwato was strong because the power was spread amongst various families. The Khamas did not lord it over at the main wards of GaMmangwato.
For example the Khamas did not rule Goo Konyana and Maaloso-a-Ngwana wards. Cabinet is not like the Ngwato main kgotla, so that even though a concentration of the Khama family at the main kgotla did not attract any negative sentiments, because other families led their respective wards, the concentration of the Khamas in cabinet is bound to make others feel uncomfortable. This has nothing to do with nepotism but rather the absence of independent centers of power.
What I am getting at is that it is time the Khamas started sharing power with other families. If they do not, very soon there is going to emerge a message that will effectively alienate them even from within the BDP itself.
This is because as things stand they are a threat to a lot of people even those within the BDP. If there is one thing that I have learnt it is that it is easy to rally people around a common enemy without yourself putting forth any sound policies. The concentration of the Khamas, with their clear visible minority attributes, in the highest echelons of power, makes them easily identifiable as an enemy.
The Khama name is unlikely to permanently overshadow their alienating attributes. Rre Ian Khama must start sharing power very quickly, or he may find himself being responsible for the demise of the Khama name because every failure will soon be attributed to the Khama family and not the BDP.
After all it is not in the BDP interest to assume liability for Rre Khama’s leadership decisions, especially where such decisions are not liked by the majority of our people.
The BDP was formed on the basis of non racialism and promotion of merit. Concentration of power in the Khama family can only be supportable if it is founded on these ideals.
I do not see how appeal to laws that preserve space, executive discretion, can be relied upon to allow violation of these ideals. Sooner or later those who rely on the law will have to say that the law made by successive BDP governments rubbishes the BDP ideals. The BDP will then have no choice but to withdraw its support, for it cannot support that which is contrary to its ideals.
When eating magazine food, we looked only at the page. We did not read the menu items. It is possible in such a situation to eat sereto (totem). Perhaps BDP has been looking at the page and not reading the menu. Its menu is a non racial and merit based society.
It is not about electing or promoting those that seem to be in Khama’s good books. It must reject anything that cannot be supported on its ideals, otherwise e ja sereto. It must reject processes and laws that create space for violation of its ideals.
