Vol.23 No.37

Monday 13 March 2006    

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Masire Explains Decisions Of Founding Fathers

By Tuduetso Setsiba
Staff Writer

3/13/2006 4:20:25 PM (GMT +2)

Former president Sir Ketumile Masire has said that chieftainship should never be mixed with politics. During a press conference at the Mass Media Complex on Friday, Masire said one must either be a politician or a chief.


He said the two do not go hand in hand. He asserted that people have been misled about chieftainship by people who want to score political points. "But it should be understood that whatever mistakes we might have committed, we did not do that deliberately," he said. Masire revealed that the issue of minor and major tribes has been blown out of proportion and that it was never their intention to have other tribes feeling inferior. He explained that when they formulated the constitution there were tribes that had paramount chiefs with an identifiable territory. They were eight of these tribal entities. At that time, there tribes that lived closely but did not have a paramount chief in Ghanzi, Tati, Kgalagadi and Chobe. The founding fathers decided that the chiefs of these tribes should choose one of them to represent the regions in the House of Chiefs. "It was up to the chiefs to decide who represents them at the House of Chiefs." Masire simplified the issue and said that the tribes were given the chance to identify and appoint paramount chiefs. "We had thought the problem would sort itself out but it now seems to be a thorn in the flesh," he said. Masire lashed out at the people who initiated the appointment of Balopi Commission that looked into Sections 77, 78 and 79 of the Constitution. The sections are deemed to be tribally biased against the minority tribes. Masire said the Commission was a pure waste of resources. On his legacy he said he left Vision 2016 for Batswana, but he could not clearly take a stand on his automatic succession to presidency. Instead he said it worked at a time when it was implemented but if people feel that it is not good now, they can change it. A self-confessed conservative, Masire advised that Batswana should not rush to change certain practices. He revealed that he does not support proportional representation. He argued that first the post system maximises accountability because a single representative can be held responsible for a particular area. He said the system encourages constituency service by providing voters with an easily identified ombudsman. Masire said under the proportional system, the people are likely to be represented candidates they do not know. He said the system has a tendency to over-represent the majority party and under represent other parties. He defended Botswana's presidential election system saying that the founding fathers realised that the president should not represent a constituency. "The leader of the majority party is the leader of the country. We felt that it would be very difficult to govern if there is to be a separate election of the President from Parliament, since one could have a situation where the president is from one party while the majority in Parliament is from another," he said. Send us your comments about Mmegi newspaper Search For Old Newspaper Editions To advertise contact us through email

 
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