The Game Of Politics

| Monday September 15, 2008 00:00

 I have always wondered why that is the case, but I have arrived at different conflicting conclusions. After living in Newstance, Francistown, for the rest of my primary to senior school I have come to appreciate and love the city. I even feel its better run, managed and maintained than the capital. For a long time now, Francistown has been in the hands of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) and it is no longer a campaign tool in ghetto that 'I will bring you tarred roads, water, electricity, etc' because the fact of the matter is most of these have been done and even went to an extent of having street names in many of these places, resurfacing roads, steel fencing of all primary schools (not your ordinary fence) and many more.

For anyone to succeed in the politics of Francistown they should focus on more advanced issues of uplifting the city to another level. Contrary to what I have mentioned, GC still has many kilometres of un-tarred street roads within localities (these saw the philanthropist offering to tare the roads of G/west during the 2005 by- election if elected) and those lucky to have been tarred many years ago have exceeded their lifespan and have countless potholes, especially during rainy seasons. GC on the other hand has been in the hands of the opposition, Botswana National Front (BNF) for as long as I can remember. When asked about why the capital is like this you will be told it is because of the budget constraints; the council is overwhelmed and local government ministry is not coming to their rescue. But then the politicians will say the BDP government is doing this to discredit the BNF in the eyes of the electorate (ke sabotage ya domi) on the other hand the ruling party will say ke bao ma puo-phaa ba palelwa ke council and say they could rule the country. Gape they want to make as if the government is ignoring the city and continue to have same campaign tools.

Don't be amazed why the most popularised 4D's which seem not to reach GCC and its business as usual in the dirty Gaborone. Please can we have GC having its own budget fitting for a capital city. The City council, could we please have a well maintained capital city and put aside party politics because they delay everything. We could not expect FDI's to be interested in this dirty congested poorly maintained city. Can someone please restore the Dignity of GC and bring Developments suitable for the capital while they do with Discipline in their work in a Democratic environment?

Kaisara G. 
School of Business
University of Botswana