I have always held His Honour the Vice President, Lieutenant General Mompati Merafhe, in high esteem for being intellectually gifted, smart and articulate.
For the many years he was head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, General Merafhe’s performance has always been top notch. He articulated Botswana’s interests at the international level with a self assured composure and sophistication. To a greater extent, I looked up to him as a political model amid veritable opportunists.
My intellectual intimacy with him blinded me from acknowledging some of his clandestine activities particularly that associated him with active factionalism in the Botswana Democratic Party. Perhaps I convinced myself that General Merafhe was too smart and level-headed to engage in despicable acts of the nature of unintelligent squabbles.
I looked up to him as one of the few former military high command whose performance in civilian clothing made some people shelter a positive view of retired army generals.
I could hardly quarrel with those who managed to persuade him to abandon his childhood craft for the uncivilized game of politics. The manner in which he led the country in handling the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and the blood diamond campaigns by the foul-mouthed Survival International drew me into greater intellectual intimacy with him. He radiated calm in a moment of panic- a man whose level-headed outlook saw him through many bruising challenges.
Even when he, at times, displayed behaviors of an authentic lackey by defending the then Vice President Khama for his perpetual absenteeism from Parliament, my intimacy with him caused me to look the other way.
In any case I thought that this down side of him was too trivial to blight his erstwhile impeccable record.
Unfortunately, this favourable appraisal of him seems to hold no water anymore. I am certainly disappointed with General Merafhe of today whose elevation to the Vice Presidency seems to have caused him to become intellectually barren.
General Merafhe of today is always busying himself with small things. He now has his credentials acknowledged in terms of the number of occasions he issues threats on behalf of President Khama. He has taken to reckless threats and a confrontational attitude in engaging the public. He seems too eager to trample on everyone, to shout everything at everyone.
Well, the new Lieutenant General Merafhe has adopted an ungrounded and unsophisticated approach to governance premised on an overt show of power and self-image.
When General Merafhe was elevated to the Vice President position, I initially frowned at the thought of having Generals occupying the positions of President and Vice President.
Nonetheless, I mellowed down greatly on account of General Merafhe’s recognized performance in civilian wardrobe. I also hoped that since he had been liberated from the bureaucratic burdens of a specific ministerial command, the nation was going to get value from his appointment as the number two in command.
However, the reverse seems to be the case. General Merafhe is a shadow of himself. He has lost steam and sophistication.
The cause of this unpleasant turn of events is none other than his re-designation and elevation to the position of Vice President, and most importantly, being told that, unlike other VPs who ascended to the presidency of the Republic of Botswana, he won’t become a President. Botswana has always had Vice Presidents who were also heading specific ministries, in particular the all important Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, perhaps to reflect the importance and seniority of the Office of the Vice President.
Peter Mmusi was made to head the then lofty Ministry of Local Government, Lands and Housing at a time when government attached importance to uplifting the rural Botswana.
Many such VPs have always ascended to the Presidency. This however, changed when the then President Mogae altered the status quo and engineered the Vice President as Minister without portfolio. Consequently, the then VP was designated as Minister without portfolio, purportedly to cause him to direct all his focus on project implementation. President Khama has upheld this arrangement hence the current VP does not head any particular ministry but it is believed that his authority has no boundaries. His mandate reaches into every cranny of domestic operation, rattling established norms and procedures. Indeed the VP is busy but doing very little.
The best he can show for his hectic schedule since becoming VP is when he attended the African Union Summit in Cairo to tell the world that Botswana does not recognize Mugabe as president of Zimbabwe. Other than this, the VP has been excelling in getting angry on behalf of President Khama, expressing an excessive dislike for alcohol on behalf of President Khama and trying to symbolize the past Mogae administration at every small opportunity.
When addressing a Kgotla meeting in Kanye on May 23, 2008 General Merafhe revealed that the government was in the process of scrapping out the red tape. This announcement was made too soon into the life of the new administration and as such bordered on cynicism because it seemed to imply that the old administration, of which he was a senior member, was the source of the red tape.
Just recently, when officiating at the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) annual awards, the General decided to reproduce the Media Practitioner’s Bill for reasons hard to fathom and assumed the role of a monkey in the forest, interspersed with unintelligent and infantile quotations in the mould of puerile comments usually made by Professor Jonathan Moyo of Zimbabwe.
His dislike for the media seems to derive from a value system informed by the principle of personal experience and flavor in a manner that ensures that the interests of individuals take precedence over national interests.
A substantial cause of all these troubles is the lack of specific responsibilities for the Office of the VP since being de-linked from a specific ministerial command. This brings in the question of whether the Office of the VP, as currently constituted, adds any value to our vision for a better Botswana.
Of coarse, it is a constitutional norm the world over to have the position of Vice President but the practice should not be replicated simply on the basis of international practice. In Botswana, the VP office has metamorphosed into a sorry ceremonial office in which the VP has to busy himself with threats of military style intervention to improve service delivery. While not riding the government chopper, Merafhe tends to be busy at sampling dishes at official picnics. Precisely, the Office of the VP is not challenging which could explain in part why the former VP preferred a five-year sabbatical leave.
The Office of the VP is currently being used for patronage appointments to appease party stalwarts who had worked exceptionally well for the party and qualified to ascend to the presidency but couldn’t get it because it is reserved for the chosen ones through the dreadful practice that is automatic succession. It is intended to soothe the egos and ease the unimaginable trauma of people who have been told that they cannot ascend to the presidency of the Republic in spite of their impressive credentials and experience, which is why its bearers have ample time for verbal hooliganism directed at innocent members of the public rather than those who took the unpleasant decision. The integrity of the Office of the Vice President has been caused irreparable harm since being de-linked from a ministerial portfolio and there is need to restore its dignity or abolish it once and for all.
