It was on the 6th January 2021 when the immediate past President of the United States of America hothead Donald Trump addressed his supporters a few hours before his Vice President Mike Pence was scheduled to certify the results of the 3 November 2020 presidential election in a joint session of Congress. In the US presidential election history, this is a political process that goes on with less to no drama. During his address to his supporters, hothead Trump urged his supporters to invade the Capitol in order to disrupt Pence’s performance of the Constitutional duty to certify the 2020 election results of the presidential election so that he (Trump) could hold on to power. As it turned out a few hours after Trump’s address, all hell broke loose as the Capitol was breached by his equally hothead mob. The sole purpose of hothead Trump in all these was to circumvent the US democracy and the rule of law. In this article, I will draw parallels between hothead Trump’s own circumvention of democracy and South Africa/Botswana versions on the same.
Trump has never been and will never again be a fit and a proper person to enter the Oval office because his architecture is, has never been and will never be grounded on the basic tenets of upholding democracy at the most bare minimum. It is said by those who have intimate knowledge of the US traditions of handing of power by the loser to the winner that the loser always attends the inauguration of the winning President. But not so for Trump who on the 20th January 2021 which is the traditional and historical inauguration date, he together with his family and close associates boarded Air Force One and left Washington DC. To those who knew his character and particularly that he was still foaming at his mouth on his false account that the election was stolen from him, boycotting the inauguration of the incoming President Joe Biden did not come as a surprise. It fully characterised and described hothead Trump.
Hothead Trump’s kind of democracy is only his or the highway. As the 6th January hearings continue, a lot of what happened immediately and after the 3rd November 2020 presidential election emerge. It has so far emerged that he was not alone in trying to circumvent the US democracy but with the pointed assistance of those in his inner circle be they within or without the government machinery. It has also emerged that some of his upright inner circle members told him to his face that he had lost the election and that there was nothing Pence could do to overturn the results. But the more you told him the truth more you became his enemy. Perhaps more disturbing in more ways than one is the wrong advice to Trump by some of his lawyers to the effect that Vice President Pence could in fact and after all invalidate the certification of the presidential election. While this in my view should be treated as legal opinion by such lawyers, it has to my best recollection not been proved in court to be so.
While he may have attempted to circumvent US democracy in probably more profound manner than it ever was in recent history, he is not alone in the overall act. Similar acts are abound here at home and in the neighbouring South Africa. In the latter, the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture has revealed how democracy was grossly and gravely circumvented during former President Jacob Zuma’s presidency. The Commission has concluded that State functions and machinery were ably outsourced by him to his associates both in government and in the private space chief of whom outside were to the Gupta family. In the process, some of the State officials abdicated their fiduciary duties by not being loyal to the Constitution and to the people but to Zuma by facilitating the outsourcing.
Here at home, we have seen how State officials continue unabated to be loyal to Presidents-past and present than the people and the Constitution through many disturbing instances. It has become patently clear that the State through some of its officials fabricate offences against citizens and other people where such are arrested and later released without any charges laid against them. Such State officials have gone as far as fabricating stories against citizens such as the P 100 billion matter in which this amount of public funds was reportedly stolen from the Bank of Botswana even when the bank says not only has Botswana had such huge amount of money but that no money was ever stolen from it. The Director of Public Prosecutions and the Attorney General have in the recent past come under fire for seemingly being in cahoots with the political leadership to circumvent democracy and the rule of law through their omissions or commissions. The ongoing turf wars between two important institutions of the State being the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime and the Directorate of Intelligence Service perfectly sums up how like in the hothead Trump’s case, State officials allow themselves be used to circumvent democracy. Deleterious consequences therefrom are felt in all spheres of our lives.
Whereas elaborate mechanisms in the US and South Africa have been occasioned to publicly put the circumvention of democracy through the January 6th hearings and the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture respectively, Botswana has not shown any appetite to demonstrate to the public how democracy has and continues to be circumvented by both the political and administrative leadership. It should be obvious why this is so. At the core of the circumvention of democracy and by extension the rule of law whether in hothead Trump’s case or in cases involving South Africa and Botswana is self-preservation/self-centredness at citizen expense.
Democracy and the rule of law have become under serious threat by people whose duty it is to demonstrably promote and preserve the two virtues. The lack of doing so comes in many but different forms and shapes as demonstrated by the above-mentioned scenarios. In some extreme cases if I may call it that and which cases have been widely reported globaly, the judiciary which in and of itself should be the last line of defence, also finds itself embroiled in the non-promotion of the sacrosanct virtues of democracy and the rule of law through some of its questionable decisions. I will be fair to the judiciary to say in some jurisdictions, it has held firm as the true last line of defence.
By any measure probably in the recent past, hothead Trump is demonstrably an individual who is allergic to democratic tenets and should have never and must never be allowed to enter the Oval office. The four years that he spent in that office have proved beyond any doubt that he has been a political mess to American democracy. Over and above this, it should potentially be argued that abundant circumstantial evidence support his menace to American democracy. As the 6th January hearings continue, one is left with no other alternative but to suggest more dirt will be dug by people who were close to him when he ferociously urged his supporters to help him circumvent America’s democracy after failing to secure the second term as President. Only hotheads resort to violence when they fail democracy test. Americans must never ever allow hothead Trump to walk closer to the Oval office let alone occupying it. I am prepared to be persuaded otherwise as always. Judge for Yourself!
‘No one is safe until everyone is safe’. Let us continue to adhere to all Covid-19 health protocols. It appears the pandemic will be with us for far too longer than we may have imagined.
