It is election year. Political parties are already going around hat in hand raising money for their various campaigns. By nature running political campaigns is very expensive. In the past the Botswana Democratic Party benefited immensely from generous donations made from slush funds by such companies like De Beers and Debswana. With changes in management but also changing landscapes in corporate governance that has since changed.
Additionally, De Beers is no longer owned by the Oppenheimer family who when it came to political party funding in Botswana behaved more like colonial era footloose gunslingers that called themselves explorers, missionaries and business people. De Beers is today owned by Anglo American, a global resource multi-national that faced with its checkered history has had to reform with a clear bias towards transparency and humane faced capitalism. On that account, De Beers has publicly stated it no longer finances political causes.
Revenue streams for the BDP have over the years been dwindling. The party is no longer awash with cash in the manner that it used to. As a result it is forced to go0 to the market to and indeed to its members for pledges. For a party that has steadfastly resisted calls for political party funding by the state, few tears should be shed for the BDP. We see a new culture which in the strictest of the word would easily qualify and money laundering. Is it a coincidence that parastatals when they make donations only do so to ministers and/or to constituencies held by sitting ministers?
Is it a coincidence that privately owned colleges that make all their money from government financed tuitions repeatedly make large donations to only cabinet members including State President? Is it a coincidence that private companies undertaking large contracts for government only make contributions to causes and indeed charities that are exclusively associated with members of cabinet including the State President? These are serious issues of corporate governance that need to be examined, scrutinised and interrogated. Another enemy of our democracy is the business community, especially the expatriate community which as we know is dominated by people of Asian extraction.
It is true many of their countries of origin have no pretence to democracy, but where democracy does exist as is the case in India, it is shocking to realise that Indians doing business in this country are not doing anything to enhance a culture of democracy through leveling the playing field. What many of them do is to use the proceeds of contracts they get from doing business with government to finance the Botswana Democratic party at the exclusion of other parties.
This is akin to tying one party’s hands behind their back while cheering the other to get on and fight. People are free do whatever they want with their money but it is evil to contaminate our democratic processes in that manner. What it does is to cause resentment among opposition parties which in the long term will filter into policy formulations within those parties being biased against certain foreign nationalities. We urge the expatriate business community in Botswana to at least stay out of our political discourse rather than fuel unevenness by sponsoring one player against the others. We still remember the hostility that Kgalagadi Breweries attracted to itself a few years ago after it publicly came up with a transparent and equitable formula for financing all political parties.
The ruling party while receiving the largest share on account of its share of the vote, still sulked that the KBL formula was recognizing other players and along the way giving even small parties a disproportionately bigger shot in the arm. The same would not have happened had KBL followed De Beers precedence of secretly and exclusively financing just the BDP. We are aware that some parastatals, including private companies in which Botswana government has a share have transformed themselves into slush funds for the BDP and its functionaries.
