Whither Botswana

BDP members are not helpless against Khama
Of course, former Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) secretary general, Kentse Rammidi, was right in recently commenting to the press that: "You might as well dissolve Parliament.

The current structure of Parliament is such that for the next three years, it is going to be rendered irrelevant by the executive... The executive has 24 ministers and assistant ministers while the BDP only has 14 backbenchers. Once cabinet has taken a decision, it is then put to a vote at a party caucus" - Sunday Standard, August 21-27, 2011).  Rammidi did not bother to tell us about the outcome of such votes because that was fairly obvious - the cabinet always wins.

But this has been a potential problem ever since this country achieved independence in 1966. This has been so because the country's constitution prescribed for us a system of government similar in many ways to the British one. Botswana's system assigns to Parliament the exclusive power to enact laws, while the cabinet not only drafts almost all such laws (unlike in Britain), but also sits in Parliament and votes to enact such laws.

Editor's Comment
Congratulations Anicia Gaothuse!

The contest had 10 beautiful young girls as finalists and unfortunately only one could wear the crown.The judges picked Anicia Gaothuse. To all those who feel their contestant should have won ahead of Anicia for whatever reason, hardly; the judges found Anicia to be the best among the best, so desist from disrespecting our newly crowned queen on social media or anywhere else, for that matter! Each of the 10 beautiful young women had supporters...

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