BDP wars not helping anyone

Mmegi Editor | Monday September 6, 2021 06:00

The concerned civic leaders believe the ruling party cannot win the 2024 general election if the status quo remains.

Of late, the BDP councillors have raised concerns about their party’s priorities. They pointed out that the government could have prioritised the purchasing of COVID-19 vaccines rather than splashing P58 million on buying Tautona Lodge. The lodge was recently bought under controversial circumstances.The councillors bemoaned that members of the public are dying in large numbers due to the pandemic, which should be given priority. As of August 16, the country had recorded 2,261 deaths due to COVID-19.

All this has pitted the ruling party leadership, who are at the helm of government, against their juniors at council level. Observers have commented that this war could affect service delivery, which is very true. Our fragile economy cannot afford such egoistic stand off. We are living under very turbulent circumstances where every ounce of time wasted cannot be recovered. As it is, livelihoods and households are dogged by insurmountable problems. This, on its own has put the ruling party under tremendous pressure to deliver.

Factionalism has never achieved anything productive. We all know that Cabinet ministers and councillors have different yet critical roles to play in the development of the people.

Electorates look to their elected representatives for leadership and guidance. Councillors can provide this by putting forward possible solutions to problems at council meetings.

They develop visions for the communities and decide what needs to be done to achieve that vision.

On the other hand, those at Cabinet level are responsible for directing government policy and making decisions on national issues. They discuss current national problems and decide how these could be resolved by proposing and presenting Bills for adoption into laws.

These are huge responsibilities that can be time consuming. So, if our leaders are involved in factional fights, where would they get the time to think and come up with better ways to address the people’s problems?

As such, we urge our leaders to resolve their differences and concentrate on the job at hand and provide services to the people. They should remember that they are there on the tickets of the people.

Like the famous African proverb that says, “when elephants fight it is the grass that gets trampled”, the reported infighting between the ruling party Members of Parliament and councillors could have significant negative bearing on the ordinary citizens.

Today's thought

“The civil service is a vital economic asset to the UK-Firstly, in the way it creates a framework for excellence in service delivery and secondly, in how it helps organise the best way to deliver modern public services on which both businesses and individuals depend.”

– John Hutton