During the past three weeks, private newspapers have been awash with stories of a plot within the BDP to oust Vice President Mompati Merafhe from his post. It is reported that the decision by some of the ministers and BDP MPs to support a motion tabled in parliament by Botsalo Ntuane calling for the establishment of a commission of inquiry to investigate factors that resulted in our country failing to benefit from the world cup was an act of defiance meant to embarrass the VP. Apparently, all BDP MPs were instructed by the VP at their parliamentary caucus to vote against the motion because opposition MPs will steal the limelight from the ruling party.
Despite being a senior member of cabinet who should be providing leadership and guidance to BDP MPs especially the new ones, Merafhe has declared war on our democracy by stifling debates on important national issues in parliament. He has on several occasions stated that BDP MPs should use their numerical advantage to reject motions tabled in parliament by opposition MPs. To say that Merafhe’s utterances are irresponsible is an understatement.
By telling the BDP MPs how to vote, Merafhe does not seem to realize that he is forcing them to behave like children who cannot differentiate between right and wrong. He forces them to vote with their feet rather than their heads and is basically insulting their intelligence. He does not seem to realize that he is by extension insulting the intelligence of Batswana who voted for their MPs knowing very well that they will discuss national issues without fear or favour.
The directives that he gives to BDP MPs clearly indicate that he thinks he is the most intelligent person in Botswana who knows how democracy works and what is good or bad for the nation. He is assaulting the democratic values and pillars that have kept our society together and the sooner he leaves cabinet the better. People of his caliber are irrelevant to politics of the twenty-first century. I guess this is the price that we have to pay for having a former army commander who has not seen the inside walls of a secondary school classroom holding such a senior position in our society.
That Merafhe has caused a lot of damage and injustice to the BDP as a leader of the A-Team faction and to our democracy is not in dispute as indicated above. But we all know that the Chief Executive Officer of an organization takes responsibility for everything that happens within it and most importantly for its performance. And in this case, the buck stops at the door of President Khama in so far as the problems bedeviling the BDP and the nation are concerned. He should be bold enough and take responsibility for the problems besieging the BDP and the democratic deficit that we are experiencing as a nation by stepping down.
The BDP constitution gives Khama all the powers that he craves. He has the power to suspend any member who puts the name of the party into disrepute, appoint people to the central committee and sub-committees without consulting anyone as he did after the Kanye congress and he can also renew the contracts of BDP employees without consulting the central committee. He is the chief spokesperson of the party and is the only one who can decide what other members can say and/or write about the party. Furthermore, the constitution of the country gives him enormous powers and even places him above the law as shown by the judgements of the High Court and Court of Appeal when dismissing Motswaledi’s application with costs.
It is well known that instead of using the powers given to him by the BDP and the country’s constitution to protect and advance the interests of the citizens, Khama has used them to purge those who differ with him. He has used his powers to introduce a spoils system where only those who are close and loyal to him are given powerful positions in government. How does one explain the secondment of Isaac Kgosi from BDF to head DIS as well as the recent appointments of Justice Ian Kirby as President of the Court of Appeal and former DIS legal advisor Sechele Sechele as the Director of Prosecutions?
One thing that pains me a lot as a taxpayer is that the President is undisturbed by misappropriation of public funds, virement of funds from one vote to the other without authorization of the accounting officers and issues of conflict of interest in the award of government tenders. The discussion of the PAC report detailing all the wrong doings has been blocked by the BDP MPs because it does not portray their colleagues in good light. We are now told that funds allocated to DIS are used to buy opposition MPs to join BDP. And all these things are happening under the leadership of Lt Gen Ian Khama.
As quoted in the Echo newspaper of 1st July 2010, Khama is of the view that there is nothing wrong in spending public funds on a useless programme such as constituency football league because the government is also spending money on HIV/AIDS which does not yield any financial returns to the national coffers. Surely, we cannot have a president who equates a life saving programme with constituency football which we are told contravenes FIFA regulations.
Despite being obsessed with discipline, Khama has failed to take disciplinary action against his ministers for inflammatory and irresponsible statements made either at BDP rallies or at kgotla meetings. Recently, Assistant Minister Molebtasi hauled insults at residents of Tobane village at a kgotla meeting and no action was taken against him. Didn’t Molebatsi fail the Botho test presented to us by Sipho Madisa and Shaw Kgathi in response to Sonny Serite’s article?
Khama cannot unite and lead the nation by applying double standards, being indifferent to mismanagement of national funds or by making inflammatory statements that the country will one day be engulfed by a civil war. If he loves this country as he always wants us to believe, then he should do the honourable thing, sack Merafhe and then step down to save us from chaos.
*Dr Mothusi teaches political & Admin studies at the University of Botswana
