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Then there was the quoted comment of the Ombudsman that incoming mail in one Ministry ‘often circulates to senior officers for up to 30 days before it reaches the responsible officer for action’ - thus serving, yet again, to confirm that PMS has been a total waste of everyone’s time. Then there was a summarized financial report in the Guardian which stated that whilst the local currency lost against the US dollar, the pound and the euro, ‘not all was lost as the Pula managed to pull a 0.5% gain on the Rand’. I had thought that the purpose of devaluation was to ensure that the Pula did not gain against the Rand and that a weak Pula would help strengthen and diversify the economy. How can the economy have benefited from devaluation when a first result seems to have been massive job losses? Yes, there had to be loss in order that there could be gain. But what is the state of the domestic economy and what are its prospects when the two largest and longest established companies, the Meat Commission and Brewery are having such major problems? The problems of the former are likely to be complex but those of the Brewery seem to be straightforward. If outsourcing is being seriously considered, the likelihood must be that soon the Brewery will start importing all categories of beer other than St. Louis. How many employees will then be laid off? If in a thirsty, cattle producing nation, we cannot run either a profitable brewery or a profitable abattoir, it’s most unlikely, in present circumstances, that we will be able to run anything. Yes, it is that serious. Unfortunately the government doesn’t see it that way.
And then there has been Dr Z. Maundeni who recently described as unfortunate a local government system which ensures that a District Council Secretary or Town Clerk is NOT answerable to an elected Chairman and Council. Within weeks, the Daisy Loo catastrophe occurred. Now he has expressed renewed interest in the IEC which, by coincidence, is structured in the same way as the local government Councils in that its budget is wholly controlled by its Executive Secretary and not by its Chairman and Board. This is not to imply that where one disaster has happened, a repeat elsewhere is almost inevitable. It is to suggest, however, that the nature of accountability needs to be known and its implications understood. Because, for instance, the IEC Executive Secretary is accountable to the government it is almost certain that that he (and the IEC Board) must be also accountable to it in all other areas. Working tension between the two is an inevitable result. Because the IEC can not be financially independent of the government, it is the government alone which determines the nature of this working relationship between them and whether this is to be one of harmony or antagonism. It is also the government which determines how independent its independent electoral commission is to be. The IEC Chairman and his Commissioners, and the IEC’s Executive Secretary, will hold as fast as they can to their integrity, their independence and reputation. But they need public help. Maundeni’s proposed reforms, if implemented, could enhance the IEC’s independence and its credibility with the general public. The re-drawing of constituency boundaries should be made transparent and participatory, he argues. There needs to be a better method of selecting IEC Commissioners, and it should be the IEC which sets the dates of elections. As an ex IEC Commissioner, I support those recommendations. They need to be debated, supported, and as soon as possible, implemented.
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