During all those decades, many innocent lives were lost, their sin being that they exercised their right to freedom of expression. At the same time, the country slipped into anarchy and economic turmoil. Among the laws to be relaxed is the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), which facilitated the closure of many private media houses in the country. The good news on relaxation of the laws comes at a time when there are other positive reports that Mugabe has agreed to sack the country's controversial Attorney General, and that he has reached a compromise with the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Among the compromises is the retention of Gideon Gono as Reserve Bank governor. He has also agreed to appoint more MDC ministers to critical positions after a meeting with South African President Jacob Zuma. Since the two parties entered into Government of National Unity last year, the economy of Zimbabwe has grown by 4.7 percent after 12 years of negative growth and hyperinflation. Too many people suffered in the interim, and it will take many years before normalcy can return to Zimbabwe. But what happened in Zimbabwe should never be allowed to happen in any country. Africans must strive for democracy and not allow one-man rule or single-party regimentation to ruin their countries. Unfortunately, we are saying this at a time when our own country is - for the first time since independence in 1966 - facing a political crisis. The ruling party has split and the concerns raised by its aggrieved members is that this country is slipping into a dictatorship. It has often been said for the past three years that things were not moving in the right direction and all the BDP could say was that those complaining were hallucinating. We urge the BDP and the Botswana government to beware the pitfall that Zimbabwe fell into: BODIBA BO JELENG NGWANA' MMAGO. The BDP use as an excuse to be undemocratic the international community's perception that Botswana is a shinning example of democracy and success story for Africa. So they relaxed while democracy died. Any patriot and any lover of peace will be worried that the warring factions in the ruling party have failed to reach a compromise. The split could lead to either fresh elections or a constitutional crisis, something we are not ready for. It has been said before that Botswana should stop pretending, we are like any other African country where the rule of law and human rights mean nothing to the leadership. The Media Practitioners Act, The Directorate of Intelligence and Security, and lack of Freedom of Information Act, to name but a few are a serious threat to our democracy. The ruling party has refused to accede to requests to have these in place, and we remain like any non-democratic country that maintains it is democratic when all can see it is not.
Today's thought
"Democracy consists of choosing your dictators, after they've told you what you think is whatyou want to hear."
