This is clearly a diversion from Setswana proverbs like "Mahoko a kgotla a mantle otlhe" and "mmualebe o a bo a bua la gagwe" which for many years have guided national dialogue. There has also been a shift in terms of how we do things amongst them the execution of alleged criminals without due legal process. Batswana generally live in fear and do not trust each other anymore. They can not speak freely over their phones. This scenario is worrying because we should be moving towards making our country more open and democratic.
Last year, there was a court case involving a popularly voted secretary general of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) and the president of the party and the country. This court case followed some actions of the president which some ruling party central committee members thought were not in line with the party constitution. To try and reconcile differing opinions in the interpretation of the constitution, the then secretary general of the BDP sought some legal opinions from some three different lawyers on the powers of the president. This seemed like a right move as it involved getting legal experts to interpret a legal document. The BDP president did not see it this way and consequently the secretary general was suspended from the ruling party which ultimately disqualified him from standing as a BDP representative for Gaborone Central. The matter ended up in court where the final judgement was technical due to immunity of the sitting president. Due to the culture of intolerance and dislike for public discourse in the BDP, the court ruling was an end to the issue which brought about the court case. There was never a determination on the part of the ruling party to appreciate the merits of the secretary general's concern for divergent interpretation of the president's powers as provided by the constitution. The perceived ambiguity of presidential powers in the BDP constitution as suggested by the former BDP secretary general still exists. What the court judgement has achieved is deferring the issue and there's no doubt that it will haunt the ruling party. In fact it has already started as there is now a breakaway party from the BDP called Botswana Movement Democracy (BMD).
