President M.E.K. Masisi like his predecessors presented the nation with his re-configured government ministries the message of which I want to believe, is to improve efficiency and effectiveness of delivering services to Batswana and in the process meaningfully improving their political and socio-economic circumstances. These re-configurations, past and present, should have vastly improved such circumstances more than it is witnessed. But lo and behold, it appears such improvements count for very little if at all considering the same political and socio-economic circumstances the country is undergoing. It is well and good and one thing to present a re-configured government ministries and the other to ensure its goals and objectives are achieved. The biggest failure of achieving these goals and objectives is the critical and required lack of political courage and conviction to ensure that the objectives and goals are so achieved. I will define political courage and conviction as an absolute commitment and demonstration beyond rhetoric to achieve that which is intended through policy and legislation for the public good.
The first point of call to ensure political courage and conviction should be achieved in the National Assembly where the Executive should be held accountable by Members of Parliament from all sides of the aisle. This is where national issues meant to better our everyday lives are ventilated and decided upon; this is where budgets for different ministries are tabled and appropriated and so forth. Essentially and to a large extent, this is where Botswana is either made or broken. My believe is that Botswana has largely been broken than made in the National Assembly. The unfolding political discourse in the August House tells us that only the Opposition MPs robustly try without much success if anything given their thin numbers to hold the Executive to account for its actions and decisions through various Motions and Private Member’s Bills. The ruling party MPs have abdicated their mandatory role of robustly holding their fellow members in the Executive to account. They neither see nor hear evil hence the saying they rubberstamp all decisions of the Executive. When they attempt to do so, it is always very cautious if not lacklustre such that they do not offend or embarrass the powers that be. With the ruling party MPs gravely terrified to hold their colleagues in the Executive accountable in the true meaning of accountability, they cease to hold the political courage and conviction and as a consequence, more of the same in terms of whether the new re-configurations will translate (beyond rhetoric) into the said objectives and goals.
Looking at the overall ‘job descriptions’ of all ministries as outlined in the Government Gazette Ordinary dated 22nd April 2022, such ‘job descriptions’ are clearly and I dare say meticulously outlined. But truth be told, there is nothing peculiar or extraordinary from what the mandates of these ministries have been in the past or they will be in the future. The Ministry of Health broadly speaking, remains with the mandate of ensuring the nation is healthy barring a few tweaks here and there. The immediate question should be: what is the state of our broader public health facilities vis-à-vis the frequent re-configuration of that ministry? Nothing to write home about. By its own admission, the public health facilities are in shambles in more ways than one. There is trouble accessing the most basic medication for most of the ailments afflicting the general population in public health facilities probably more than ever before. With the ministry of lands having been re-configured many times before and with so many land policies created subsequently, has the allocation of land improved for the better? The painful answer is that land allocation for both residential and commercial purposes has gone from bad to worse. As at the latest figures on residential allocations if my memory serves me well, over 600,000 land applications requiring over P 90 billion remain to be acted upon. This was disclosed by the Permanent Secretary of the land ministry when appearing before one of the parliamentary committees. The cause of this in my view is the critical lack of political courage and conviction to ensure that Batswana are quickly and timeously allocated land. All manner of school boy excuses are always offered when push comes to shove.
One of the debilitating problems in the world and Botswana for that matter, is that of Corruption. Those who know say it is akin to cancer that eats a person’s body and soul if not attended to earlier. Masisi’s administration and those that came before acknowledge the deleterious consequence of corruption. They may have come with the legal frameworks and institutions to deal with it. What is not disputable is that the levels of corruption have escalated to such astronomical heights that the legal frameworks and institutions are unable to go toe to toe with these levels. The primary cause of this scenario is the lack of the powers that be to fight against corruption beyond mere rhetoric. There is nothing to suggest the re-configuration of the ministry responsible for dealing with corruption will deal with the issue over and above how it dealt with it before. The President will still remain with all the powers to appoint and dismiss as he wishes the head of the corruption busting institution. This without saying, is will lead to corruption busting remaining as it has been for the longest time. I was taken aback by the President when he said at the Forbes under 30 event on Monday morning that ‘Botswana is very focused in ensuring zero tolerance of corruption’. What the President said is not commensurate with the exponential increase in corruption. Many institutions here and elsewhere have said corruption is on the increase with very little if any to combat it. It is the talk many of us have become accustomed to.
All State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) have been created by Acts of parliament where their mandates are clearly spelt out together with which structures should manage them (Board and executive management). Overall, there is no cogent reasons why most of these SOEs should be operating without substantive Chief Executive Officers and in some instances without Boards. A typical example is Botswana’s flagship Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) which has been allowed to collapse right under the noses of different Ministers. It is hard to fathom why the BMC and whose prime mover are cattle, has so collapsed to the point that the prime movers are allowed to be exported at the detriment of cattle producers and the general commercial spin offs it would derive therefrom had the BMC been operating optimally and under good governance principle.
All in all, the recent re-configuration of government ministries by the President is nothing to write home about. It is nothing dissimilar from the re-naming of ministries and moving Ministers across the chess board that has become part and parcel of our political history. As long as Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) MPs continue to pitifully fail in their meaningful oversight functions over the Executive by permitting themselves to be subservient to it, ministries will continue to be named this and that with no corresponding outcomes to benefit Batswana. The BDP has for the longest time and across board become allergic to the principles of good governance, the rule of law and accountability. Nothing suggests the allergic conduct will cease anytime soon. Unless and until this government wakes up from the deep slumber to demonstrate unquestionable courage and conviction in presiding over matters of the State, questions with respect to whether or not it is fit and proper to hold office will come thick and fast. I have seen this movie before and nothing suggests it will change anytime soon as long as actors remain the same. I am prepared to be persuaded otherwise as always. Judge for Yourself!
‘No one is safe until everyone is safe’ Let us continue to religiously adhere to all Covid-19 protocols.
