One has to have some measure of sympathy for the Minister of Finance who is currently facing corruption charges.
For a man who has worked so hard and so long, being dragged into the dock so late in one’s career can never be an easy thing.
But our concern should not be with men, but rather with institutions.
To paraphrase Barack Obama, Africa needs strong institutions not strong men.
Being charged with corruption can never be compatible with being a Minister of Finance, not even in an obscure, third world country such as ours. It matters little how talented the accused may be, or how much trust his employer may have in the accused.
I have known and met Ken Matambo many times in my career as a journalist.
I have the greatest respect for his abilities. But I think he should resign from cabinet. Long before it transpired that he had fallen under the radar of the corruption busting agency, I was worried that he had made a gross mistake to agree to join politics. It is an opinion I bluntly communicated to him and made clear I looked forward to a day when he would leave politics because, to me, his demeanour was never cut out for politics.
Although he did not say it in exactly those words, he hinted that his stay in politics would be short and unlikely to go beyond the life of the current parliament.
That gave me some measure of relief. I figured he could contribute more meaningfully outside the theatre of cutthroat politics.
Like the erratic Pono Moatlhodi, who I have lately grown to profoundly disagree with, Ken Matambo is from Tonota, my home village ÔÇô where, I must declare, I was born and grew up.
He is a true gentleman with a strong emphasis of rules and adherence to policy.
But such a relationship should not distract us from the issue at hand.
It is to those we love and like that we should be more honest and forthright in our application of the rules.
My view, which I do not apologise for, is that having been charged, Matambo should resign from cabinet and concentrate all his efforts on proving his innocence. Dealing with the kind of economic crisis that the country is going through, coupled with riotous demands by public servants who want salary increases cannot be feasible when the Minister of Finance also has to constantly drive looking at his rear mirror as he attempts to stave off charges of ethical impropriety. Given what a proud and image conscious man he is, I have serious doubts that Matambo is going to be anywhere near a position to brazenly shut out the negative public glare that is going to be generated by his troubles with the law and concentrate on official duties. However, a talented economist and financier he is, with extensive experience obtained at some of the world’s finest financial institutions, the fact of the matter is that a formal charge of corruption against him effectively impedes on his ability to meaningfully carry on with the job he knows best ÔÇô managing the economy and public finances.
Going forward, firefighting is the word that immediately crosses my mind on just how his life is going to undergo transformation. That cannot be good for his health. And certainly not good for the health of Botswana’s ailing economy! An elementary principle of law states very clearly that a man is presumed innocent until proven guilty. But then just how practically tenable is it that the same man who has the spectre of criminal charges hanging on his head is also the guy who, on behalf of Botswana Government, is expected to negotiate with such institutions as the World Bank, the IMF, and the African Bank ÔÇô either to solicit fresh credit or restructure the existing loans? I was to emphasise that Ken Matambo is highly a respected public servant who has spent many years working hard not just to build a strong reputation behind his name, but also serving his country in many diverse and difficult positions. It is tragedy of Shakespearian proportions that almost at the end of what has been an otherwise distinguished career, the man should be slapped with charges that render his reputational recovery almost irreparable. Just as the charges against Matambo became public last week, the head of IMF resigned his position half the world away in New York. Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned not because he was pleading guilty to criminal allegations leveled against him, but because he felt he had a duty to protect the institution he had served with honour and integrity ÔÇô but, perhaps more importantly, because he felt he needed to devote his undivided attention towards proving his innocence. This is a man who had already made known his intention to become the President of France sometime next year. Put against Matambo, the stakes could certainly not have been higher for Strauss-Kahn. So just why does Matambo think it is so important for him to hang on as finance minister? For his own sake Matambo should resign. His resignation would also save the Presidency of Botswana the ignominy of having to face charges of harbouring a criminal accused.
An impression has already been created that President Ian Khama has implored Matambo to stay on. That I think is unfortunate.
Whose interests is Matambo serving by hanging on? Perhaps those of Khama and Khama’s government, but certainly not his own. If that is true, then that is tantamount to Khama using Matambo as a human shield.
Khama wants to use Matambo’s stay in cabinet to enforce an illusive but potentially omnipotent fa├ºade of unity, stability and serenity inside cabinet. That sounds a bit heinous to me.
I don’t think that it is a price Matambo wants to pay, especially when one looks at the fact that he has always been an unwilling politician, deeply disdainful of politics, and unable to hide his spite for the many intellectually shallow guys who sit in our parliament and cabinet.
From the look of things, Matambo was called into cabinet, not because he was a part of the ruling tribe, but because the tribe was unable amongst itself to produce a person qualified enough to manage public finances.
Bad as they are, the charges he faces are an opportunity for him to get out of a trade he never liked or enjoyed.
