The dispensation of Specially Elected MPs and Specially Nominated councillors, we are told, is meant to bring into Parliament and Councils respectively, members representing special interests. In principle, this is a wise provision. However, this dispensation has always been used for the wrong reasons. A few years ago it was used by the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) factions to settle scores. It has also been used to neutralize the opposition’s numerical strength especially in councils.
Thus, the provision of Specially Elected/Nominated persons has always been controversial largely because it has always exclusively favoured members of the ruling BDP. However, at this point in time all of us including the BDP know very well that the dispensation is no longer used for what it was originally meant. We know that it is presently used for mischief and when a whole Honourable Minister of government publicly states that they intend to increase the number of Specially Elected/Nominated persons to serve the interests of special groups, we know and they know full that they are deliberately misrepresenting the truth. Put bluntly, we all know and they too know that they are lying and lying big time, without a shame.
A study by Hays & Carver (2014) of the University of California titled ‘Follow the liar: the effects of adult lies on children’s honesty’, discovered that children who have been lied to by adults especially their parents are more likely to cheat and lie in later years. The implication of this finding is that our habitually dishonest Honourable Cabinet ministers are grooming and mentoring a rare breed of learned cheaters.Bagolo tlogelang maaka!! For many years the dispensation of Specially Elected/Nominated persons has not been fully interrogated most probably because the abuse of the dispensation was of a smaller scale and its impact on overall efficiency of political institutions was negligible.
It has to be noted that in the past, while the few people who were specially nominated into local councils did not represent special interests, a good number of them were people of substance which in many ways helped to apply cosmetics on a repugnant practice. However, in recent times the BDP has completely gone mad in their abuse of this otherwise noble practice. The BDP may not have publicly declared this practice a formal policy of rewarding loyalists the same way the African National Congress (ANC) does with their cadre deployment which is meant to bring under the ANC’s control all the levers of power, specifically to ensure that every institution account to the ANC.
But this is the direction the BDP has been trialling over the years and must have reached a point where they would soon make rewarding political loyalists a formal policy. This argument is informed by the stark departure from past practice of specially nominating relatively capable people to the present practice where nominees are chosen on the basis of their loyalty to the party rather than on merit or any other noble criterion. A consequence of this arrangement would be a complete crippling of councils resulting in dismal performance and unprecedented poor service delivery. Yet, this is what Batswana should ready themselves for.
When political allegiance vanquish merit it is only logical that citizens should expect disastrous service delivery because such a practice effectively legitimizes the nomination of any scoundrel for the sole purpose of cheering and recompensing them for their devotion to the movement and readiness to kill for their supreme leader. This represent an unambiguous resolve by the BDP to deliberately compromise efficiency and good governance for political expediency and convenience and the overall effect of this would be widespread dys-functionality of local councils resulting in implosion of the national economy.
A related tragedy is that while the BDP nominates maggots and ‘party-guards’ to safeguard and move forward the party agenda, such hopeless puppets, finding themselves in unlikely positions of influence, behold their luck and use their being in councils through the grossly generous practice as opportunities for self-enrichment. Given the short time they have before their chances pass away at the next general election, the delinquent-cum- conmen politicians go for the jugular for a share of the spoils by helping themselves to public coffers so fiercely that councils are literally brought to their knees. The temporary nature of the largesse means that the beneficiaries must work on overdrive to ensure that they make a fortune at the end of their brief term.
Ultimately, most councils are managed by people without the most basic or primitive qualifications; people with a treacherous political agenda; people who are very hungry, greedy and impatient. A combination of these characteristics is a recipe for disaster specifically service delivery not only gets compromised but it is deliberately shelved as vultures raid the treasury with impunity. The effect of this straying from the core business of local councils would manifest in miserable living standards of the poor who are the first to bear the brunt of this self-serving approach to the management of local institutions. Generally, it is much easier to accept the puppets that pass as councillors we have been given by the voters, including those who are so dumb that they would put their mobile phones in the microwave to charge them.
But it is unacceptably offensive for the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development to shove his crabs into our lives some of who resemble deranged and incomplete or photocopied human beings. Since many of these fellows have been imposed on us by the Minister, it is only proper and judicious to subject their performances to critical appraisal with a view to determining their worth in relation to the amount of public resources diverted to their upkeep. Underperformers should then be ridiculed regularly so that future beneficiaries of this dispensation would know what to expect before they accept their nominations. My experience is that nothing is ever given on a silver platter but if it is so given, it has grave consequences.
Local councils have always struggled with quality councillors and it is annoying that instead of revising the minimum qualifications for council candidates, the Minister stuffs councils with specially nominated people a majority of who have their mental faculties still under construction.
Bearing in mind the paradigm shift that has seen politicians getting acres of influence in governance at the expense of technocrats, the special nomination of people whose only qualification is their ability to chant the party slogan is grotesqueus and a makes the collapse of councils inevitable. It would not be surprising when in the future Batswana witness service delivery protests that characterizes South African politics.
