Over the past week, we witnessed a greatest show (Bot50), especially in Gaborone to mark the nation’s golden jubilee. Indeed, there were many reasons to celebrate such a landmark event in our existence as an independent country. Prior to gaining self-rule we went through almost 80 years of British neglect, particularly in relation to infrastructural development. It was therefore not surprising that in 1966, on the eve of our independence, many doubted if indeed we were to make a meaningful contribution among the league of nations.
Many have narrated how we transformed from a desolate and hopeless beginnings to become, in a relatively short period of time, one of the impressive development stories among developing countries. I have deliberately emphasised lack of infrastructural development in pre-independence period so that the reader can also understand that we were very much developed in other areas, for instance, socio and governance ones. Yes we come from way back with well-crafted indigenous quasi-democratic institutions and centralised way of life. Many of us have little appreciation that the Tswana’s in the 1800s were living in large villages under a central control, which often was uncommon in many parts of Africa. In other words we conducted our lives in a well organised fashion, with conflict resolution institutions in place to mention but a few. Hence, the peace that we have come to enjoy has its roots in our indigenous institutions our forefathers managed to craft in the pre-independence period. Importantly, our forefathers ensured that the spirit of Botho was weaved into our way of life; helping the poor, for example, was a defining feature of our communal way of life. We had strong measures in place to protect the weak among us before we gained independence. However, the progress made in post-independence period surely called for celebrations.
Now that Bot50 has come to pass we are back to reality. As a nation we are confronted with realisation that we cannot only afford to pay more attention on our past successes. There is a long way to go before we can claim any meaningful development in lives of many of our people. In other words, we have accomplished a lot on what we can term infrastructural development. Roads, hospitals and schools have been built across the breath and width of our country. But, there is a lot that still can be achieved, particularly on what is commonly regarded as human centred development. The emphasis here is on placing people at the centre of development, by ensuring among others that their communities are self-reliant, prioritises social justice and encourages participatory decision making. I think this should be our next focus as a nation. We need to make people not only recipients of development but participants on this process. At the end, development should make a difference on lived experiences of our compatriots. We will then have a reason to celebrate to the fullest.
The post Bot50 period appears to present more challenges for our country if recent developments are anything to go by. The signs, however, were always there even before we celebrated our golden jubilee, for instance, governance and management concerns were a common feature in many public and private companies. The issue of role of Board of Directors, especially among parastatals presented a headache for quite some time, but has gained wider currency lately. For those who have been paying attention on recent deliberations before the Parliament Standing Committee on Statutory Bodies headed by Hon Guma Moyo will agree with me that corporate governance principle have been turned upside down in these institutions. In the past the concern in relation to Boards of parastatals was that they were largely staffed with almost the same people. It would appear that the circle of those eligible to be appointed into the Boards was limited, despite more and more Batswana holding requisite knowledge and competencies to serve in such responsibilities. Nothing concerted was done to address those concerns. Sadly, we continue to have same people holding Board responsibilities in multiple institutions. But, the Guma led committee has exposed a new development with capacity to undermine corporate governance in many of our parastatals.
The latest trend is to dissolve Boards, thereby allowing the Minister responsible for such entity to take sole charge of major decisions that naturally would have been the responsibility of the Board. In short, the Minister who is responsible for appointing the Board, would dissolve existing one and not replace it, obviously with a suspicious agenda. The effect of that decision carries huge implications for oversight in those parastatals ÔÇô the Minister is the principal, the Board and everything. A strong man mentality certainly finds a fertile ground leading to heightened mismanagement and corruption in those entities. The priorities of the organisation are undermined, giving rise to rampant craft that only leads to underperformance of such bodies. The BTO best illustrate this matter. Not only the BTO, but also the case of Transport and Communications ministry. There are many others where such organisations have no Boards in place ÔÇô deliberately so because ministers and other well connected individuals want to benefit unfairly on mega projects within their control.
Where there are Boards, they remain dysfunctional for a variety of reasons. The effect of such is a series of dramatic failures by government-owned businesses. The latest scandal to rock our country relates to BCL mine. I understand a combination of factors are at play leading to unfortunate situation the mine and Phikwe town finds themselves in. The employees certainly faces a bleak future given this development. And as indicated above, we still have a long way to go as a nation, if we fail to adopt human centred approach in our development effort post Bot50.
*Dr Molefhe teaches Public Administration at the University of Botswana
