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 Addressing a Botswana National Front (BNF) rally in Maun over the weekend, Magama accused reporters for what he called the 'failure to differentiate between one's opinions and facts'. He told the rally that certain media reports that 'BNF is no longer interested in further pursuing opposition cooperation' are false and misleading because they were written by 'unqualified' and 'irresponsible' reporters. Magama, who is the BNF representative in opposition unity talks, said the unity talks are going on well and they are aiming to continue in November this year. But he was quick to point out that before the annual July congress, the Botswana Congress Party (BCP), Botswana Alliance Movement (BAM), Botswana Peoples Party (BPP) and BNF should have unanimously agreed on the type of opposition cooperation, the criteria they are going to use to divide the constituencies amongst themselves and how they are going to choose their presidential candidate. "These discussions will help us to avoid certain conflicts that may crop up when we are in power," said Magama, adding that they are bound to have differences because they are from different parties. He further said as the unity talks continue, individual parties are free to either recruit new members or hold political rallies as they wish. Magama is optimistic that a united opposition can oust the BDP from power in 2009. "This is the only way we can avoid Ian Khama's coming dictatorship," advised Magama. He added that the voters must make sure that Khama takes power from President Festus Mogae for only 18 months before the general elections in 2009. "You were dictated to by Seretse Khama. Do you still want the same dictatorship from his son?" asked Magama to a vibrant rally that punctuated his speech with party slogans. He criticised the vice president further, accusing him of poor attendance and failure to contribute during parliamentary debates. "We do not know Khama in Parliament," Magama said. Magama spent a lot of time talking about the workers' 'poor working conditions' citing payments below the minimum wage and working for more than 8 hours as prime examples that workers' rights are not respected. "It is disappointing to note that we have two ministers of labour and home affairs who remain silent when foreign companies trample on workers' rights," observed Magama. It is upon workers to elect the BNF which, he said, is a political party that will fight for workers' rights. On the constitution's tribal neutrality, Magama accused the BDP government for 'discriminating against tribes which are not among the eight principal tribes'. "When we got independence in 1966, the BDP government, which was then led by the late Seretse Khama, wanted to destroy the culture and languages of all the minority tribes," Magama said. Further, the exclusion of other minority tribes in the constitution was done deliberately to discriminate against some tribes. Magama said BNF wants to build a united nation through encouraging all tribes to maintain their languages and culture. He proposed that BNF wants to introduce the teaching of lower primary school pupils in their mother tongue. "Our constitution is not going to discriminate as it is going to be an offence to look down upon an individual on the basis of his or her ethnicity," said Magama. He said there is tribal discrimination because some public institutions are not named after the tribes residing in the areas. "We have Tawana, Ngwaketse, Kgatleng land boards, but surprisingly for other areas, we have Okavango sub-land boards and Tati land boards. Do we have a tribe called Tati?" asked Magama. He further decried the declining production of arable agriculture saying the country produces 10 percent and the other 90 percent is imported mainly from South Africa. "Just imagine what will happen if the South African companies were to collapse," said Magama.
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