Botswana has a big problem in its hands.
This problem grows by the day – in its size and also its complexity.
Solving it was never going to be easy.
And evidence from elsewhere shows that there are no shortcuts.
What is pertinent is to follow science.
And for politicians to provide leadership, goodwill and also guidance.
Dealing with Covid-19 is exceedingly difficult, for governments across the world.
And clearly there is no magic formula.
Even the doctors, researchers and epidemiologists are learning about this pandemic in real time.
For Botswana the situation is worse because the country is bitterly divided by the politics of attrition.
Political gridlock is the order of the day.
People cannot agree on anything – even the simplest of things.
This has stultified progress on many fronts.
At a political level especially in parliament, we have seen the growth of demagoguery.
We have a Vice president is a political schemer and a hardliner too. He is driven more by victory than finding a middle ground. And that much has been clear to all since he became vice president and also leader of the House.
When it comes to undermining political unity, he is by far the biggest culprit.
He is an unmitigated maximalist who has no room for making concessions.
He is excessively dogmatic and to him a compromise is a sign of weakness.
Instead of bringing others along, his demeanour proactively seeks to leave others behind and outside.
For him politics is about “them” and “us.”
After taking time to study the vice president’s approach to politics, I have reached a conclusion that shaming the other side or those who differ with him politically comes naturally to him.
The president is not much more helpful, either.
He is at heart pragmatic.
But he too is often taken in by political point scoring and needless intellectualising.
Other than the fact that he can be politically cunning, settling scores comes naturally to him.
It is thus not surprising that in this administration, flexibility is forever in short supply. It is their way or the highway.
But there is another problem on the other side which inevitably compounds an already difficult situation.
We have an opposition that refuses to play a role of a responsible stakeholder.
To that end, the opposition, especially in parliament is enabled by a Leader of Opposition who mysteriously believes he is a victim of some conspiracy against himself.
This makes him grumpy and always suspicious of other people.
He questions motives and leads him to believe the whole world is against him.
This fuels the partisan divide that is already on the ascendance.
It also bolsters the hand of hardliners that are led chiefly by vice president Slumber Tsogwane.
It remains a mystery why Botswana’s opposition has opted to adopt a totally unhelpful and counterproductive position that so clearly works against own interests.
As shown by their behavior in parliament, they have increasingly become more radicalized and antagonistic.
Inevitably, this childish behavior hardens attitudes against them within the ruling party.
The result is that they continue to refuse to embrace all overtures to become meaningful stakeholders in the country’s democratic processes. Like the ruling party, they too are absolutist in their outlook.
The deterioration in mutual respect has reached unprecedented levels.
Back to the fight against Covid-19.
A “go it alone” attitude as adopted by Botswana Democratic Party is now leading to contempt, fatigue and hostility towards the State of Emergency that was designed to fight the pandemic.
It is also this “go it alone” stance that is leading to suspicions and conspiracy theories that the president is using State of Emergency as a political weapon to fast track his unsavoury business deals.
Botswana’s fight against Covid-19 is entering the most dangerous phase to date.
We need to remind ourselves that there will always be political and strategic tension between opposition and the party in power.
That is healthy and should be encouraged as part of democratic competition.
Fighting the biggest existential threat the country has ever faced cannot be allowed to become hostage to these personality defects and political short-sightedness.
Numbers of Covid-19 deaths have left the country shocked and helpless.
But the public should not feel helpless. There is something they can do. They can force the political leadership to find a balance and work together – especially in the face of the life of the current State of emergency is coming to an end.
We need leadership that is able to set aside their differences aside and pull together in the same direction.
Political differences should always allow room for cooperation on matters of national importance such as the pandemic ravaging the world today.
Strategic consensus across the political divide could lead to a more robust national response.
That can only be possible is there is genuine and demonstrable desire on the president and his deputy to engage their political opponents
What government did this time last year in its attempt to engage the opposition really amounted to grandstanding.
The UDC was also shortsighted in that they elected not to participate, thus playing into the hands of detractors who quite predictably marked them as reckless politicians who never rise to issues of national interest.
All our political leaders – in the ruling party and also in opposition deserve to have their feet dragged through the coal.
People are dying. What we need is unity to fight Covid-19.
