A reflection on Reverend Tiego’s arrest
Dolly Byrone Thebe | Monday September 13, 2021 08:55
There they go again- the apostles and functionaries of the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) led government have unleashed the whole might of State machinery to frustrate, stigmatise and denigrate a voice in the wilderness in the form of one of Botswana's young and revered men of the cloth-Tiego.
With hindsight benefit now, we have come to know that a protest challenging the government’s mishandling of public affairs must be treated in the same way regardless of source. It does not matter whether it is coming from a man of God only armed with a Bible or from the government’s conventional sparring partners in Parliament- the opposition.
A challenge is a challenge and must be met with stiff resistance. When the pastor began advocating publicly for the resignation of the State President little did he know that State defence mechanism would spring up into life and action in the manner it did.
From the political and propaganda department, the BDP deployed one of its able demagogue and propagandist Lotty Manyepedza to undermine and bastardise the clergyman’s efforts. He made it appear that Tiego’s efforts were ungodly and unchristian like Manyepedza said if the Reverend wants to delve into the ‘unholy’ grounds of politics, he must not mention or use in vain the name of God.
Manyepedza’s utterances were probably motivated by the ancient and widely held view that politics and the church are incompatible. His position perhaps, also that of his party is grounded on selective reading of the Bible.
Roman 13: 1 says everyone must submit to governing authorities, for all authority comes from God and God has placed those in positions of authority. Even the illegitimate Apartheid government of South Africa and other dictators elsewhere found motivation and legitimacy from this script.
It is either the regime has elected to conveniently ignore and forget lessons of history or its sense of recollection has become dim. History is a good teacher of life and those who follow history do so to avoid a recurrence of past mistakes and pitfalls and also to draw lessons to shape the present and future understanding of issues. History would have given the BDP free lessons on the historical umbilical cord between the church and the struggle for freedom and justice.
The BDP it’s assumed is aware of the profound and telling impact the American civil rights movement led by Reverend Martin Luther king Junior towards shaping the destiny of the USA and peoples of colour in particular ...it was King’s charisma which put the racist regime on its toes while mobilising the oppressive to get out of their slumber and stand up to be counted.
From the pulpit, King mounted a spirited fight against racialism and injustice, prophesying the demise of racism and its ultimate replacement by a system that judged people on the content of their character and merits rather than the skin pigmentation.
Of course the brutal system of the time cut short his life. But his message was not in vain. America finally became free. Little did the system know that its brutal and callous response to the works of the man of God would find King a permanent and indelible place in the annals of history. Without lessons of history the BDP-led government was ill prepared to handle Pastor Tiego’s right to be heard.
And the clock ticked and the seventh day fell. Tiego made good his promise of delivering his ‘motion of no confidence’ on the President and his Cabinet. The march was to run from the city centre to the Office of the President. The crowd gathered around him as he read his hard-hitting speech dismissing the government as a joke, heartless, corrupt and self-serving. Contrary to the narrative sold earlier by his detractors that there were questions surrounding his sanity, his speech was coherent, well organised and delivered with distinction.
He sounded like the Biblical John the Baptist shouting in the desert of Judea calling for repentance and reunion in spirit with God. For a moment, one would be excused for thinking that Tiego was reading a verse or two from Martin Luther king’s speech ‘I have a dream’.
His call for union of purpose and mind amongst all sections of our community, from Muslims, Hindus, Christians and politicians across the divide was spot on. When asked about his sanity, he said even Jesus had to face the same denigration from his detractors. Issues he highlighted were varied, ranging from mismanagement of public funds, reckless State spending and concentration of wealth in the hands of the few privileged friends and relatives of those in power. He then said President Masisi may wish to continue to rule but he would do so without divine grace.
It was when attempting to march to the Office President that from nowhere security agents joined the fray. What a political blunder! The use of the police to dismiss what was intended to be a one-man show proved to be yet another costly political blunder on the part of the BDP government.
Once again, if they had taken lessons from history they would have avoided the grave mistake they made. The involvement of the police was uncalled for and can only go to demonstrate lack of maturity and restraint. But, involving the police to crush the march, little did it occur to the regime that it was popularising the protest and actually writing the name of Tiego in the annals of history.
The Apartheid leaders in South Africa in the 70s did not know that by slaughtering unarmed schoolboys and girls who were engaged in a protest against the imposition of Afrikaans as a language of instruction, they were raising the profile of the demonstration and permanently converting those little ones into heroes and heroines.
The 1976 Soweto uprising was a turning point in the struggle for self-determination, freedom and justice in South Africa. And so the world started paying more attention to the plight of blacks and Apartheid South Africa was to be on the international agenda for many years to come for all the wrong reasons.
Pressure from all quarters mounted until the regime had its last breath in 1994 on the birth of a new political order embracing democracy, non-racialism, non- sexism, freedom and justice. The over-zealous police arrested Tiego in public and the watching crowd at home and his supporters on the ground were infuriated. The pastor now has gained public sympathy. A bold and isolated demonstration was converted into a mass protest.
And now the regime unwittingly touched a wrong nerve - the church. The church in Botswana is usually docile and has always left the business of politics to politicians. But the Tiego saga could usher a new beginning although there has been condemnation from some churches of his (Tiego’s) involvement in partisan politics.
We can only hope that elected leaders can learn from former US president, Ronald Reagan’s words that government does not have any power except that granted to it by the people. Government cannot be more powerful that those who elected it.