A few years ago we erected a monument in the Central Business District of Gaborone. It is the statue of the three dikgosi, who we have been taught, contrary to historical fact, went to Great Britain to seek the establishment of Bechuanaland as a protectorate. Historian Dr Jeff Ramsay has pointed out that the protectorate was established a few years before the three dikgosi went to England. Such factual niceties are not relevant to myth-making – but life is so unkind that it never fails to hit one in the face with its truths. I am aware of two monuments which represent a very sad aspect about this country. I stand to be corrected, but I believe the Serowe stadium was erected during the presidency of Rre Festus Mogae, born and bred in Serowe. How was it possible in this day and age of soil and foundation investigations and advanced engineering solutions to difficult soils, to erect this monstrosity? The answer lies in disrespect.
The second monument is in Palapye, the glass factory. Press reports state that BDC has applied to court to liquidate the company set up as a special purpose vehicle to construct the glass factory. There is a story that when Sir Seretse Khama arrived by plane from overseas in Palapye his people walked from Serowe to Palapye to welcome him back. I wonder how Bangwato will feel if they were to one day commemorate the return of Seretse by staging a walk from Serowe to Palapye, only to be met by the monument of our failure to do the right thing. As we sing the hymn about there having been only 10km of tarred road at independence we are now confronted with a melody of our incompetence. At least at independence we did not have monuments showing how easy it is to insult us and get away with it. Yes, we are accumulating accolades about prudent management of our resources, but evidence is piling up that contradicts this. We may bask in the glow of the accolades but life is unkind, it does not tolerate incompetence forever. The sad thing about the Palapye glass project is that the monument is being created under the watch of none other than Rre Ian Khama. Something is happening under Rre Khama’s watch that frightens me. There was a time when people feared him. At the time he was popular and he seems to have increased the numbers. The question is; how is it possible for people to feel comfortable enough to create monuments of failure with him at the helm? What will these people do in future when he is gone and a less popular and less powerful figure comes on the scene? Because Rre Khama is powerful by virtue of his position as president and this power is increased and legitimized by his popularity it really scares me that we have people who are confident enough to discount this and create monuments of failure under his watch.
The trouble is one day Rre Khama will not be president but the people with courage to create monuments of failure will still be around, their young will have tasted power and its abuse for self gain. Effectively we are creating a monster at a time when we had an opportunity to do the right thing. Rre Khama is very much into tourism and I am inclined to support the idea that our wildlife gives this country a competitive advantage that has to be protected. This makes me wonder whether Rre Khama will only move to assert his power if such people were to create a monument of failure in the tourism industry. Perhaps our friends have realized that for so long as they do not create any monument of failure in the tourism sector they will not attract Rre Khama’s attention. This will suggest that they have identified his area of focus and his blind side. If I am correct then Rre Khama has not really assessed the risks involved in such a posture. The diamonds have been relocated and even though there has been a lot of noise about Batswana participating in the industry we all know that there has been very little that Batswana have to show. Even in the tourism industry there is very little that Batswana have to show. Soon Batswana will come to believe that the diamond and tourism industries are of very little benefit to them. Let us assume that there was no corruption in the Palapye glass project. The loss of public funds has still happened.
It does not matter to me whether the money was lost through corruption or not. I believe other Batswana feel the same way. The idea that we must first identify corruption before we feel the pain is not very sound. I remember reading about an American comedian who in reaction the statement “ strike whilst the iron is hot” said “ strike even if it is cold, it is equally painful”. We complain about our young yet we are producing them as monuments of our failure. I am aware of a young lady who studied Wildlife Biology in Australia at our government’s expense. To my knowledge she has never gotten employment in her area of specialization. She has been employed temporarily in other areas.
Surely if our government’s thrust was development of our wildlife based tourism she should have been employed in the sector. It is these people that we are frustrating. I grew up when there were huge opportunities for employment and most of our current leaders grew up under those circumstances. This may explain why they have a tough time really understanding the devastating effects of youth unemployment. If even in the area where there is no doubt our president is focused, our young, qualified in that area, cannot find employment, what chance exists that they can find employment in areas where he has no noticeable interest? It is these issues that make me fear for this country. It must be psychologically devastating to find that you cannot find refuge even in an area where the president has an interest. One can imagine what our young who are told to take advantage of government schemes must feel when they have to wait for years to access the schemes. The monuments in Serowe and Palapye serve a useful purpose. They are a permanent reminder of how we can look the other way when we are insulted. Unfortunately in regard to our young we cannot look the other way.
We can turn our eyes away from Serowe and Palapye, but we cannot turn them away from our frustrated young. We have carried out a population census every ten years, gotten accolades for prudent management of our economy but have failed to see that the numbers of our young were increasing placing more demands on our economy. Tourism will not make a significant impact on employment levels. We already know that mining is capital intensive. Promotion of coal mining will therefore not impact on youth unemployment levels. The thrust of the government is therefore in areas that have very little sustainable employment opportunities for our young. Our young must brace themselves for a bleak future. I read somewhere that the BDF wanted to be a lean force of highly trained and sophisticated soldiers. It is highly unlikely that this idea came up after Rre Khama left the army.
Further he is the commander in chief of the army. When he starts talking about being a soldier one then worries that given the intensions of BDF, which are primarily about less employment opportunities, one has a problem finding any area where sustainable youth employment converges with Rre Khama’s focus. If one combines the visible insults with the focus in areas that cannot make an impact on sustainable employment levels then one has to realize that Rre Khama needs a radical mind change. There is a possibility that Rre Khama has accepted that he cannot identify any areas outside of the non employment generating tourism, mining and army that he can use to make meaningful inroads into youth unemployment. In the Shaka Zulu story there is a part at the end where one of his induna’s says “the swallows have won, the king has been defeated”. Apparently, when he called out their war cry Shaka did not respond. As a Mongwato I really have a tough time understanding how two presidents of Ngwato stock can comfortably live with the Serowe stadium and the Palapye Glass Project. What is the point of being a Mongwato if you cannot tell your kgosi when someone insults Bangwato and that such is unacceptable? How can one claim to be patriotic and still live comfortably with these monuments of failure? Then again I have heard somewhere that patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.
