Response to State of the Nation Address
Dumelang Saleshando | Friday November 8, 2013 15:09
While subsequent addresses highlight the problems that were meant to be addressed by the abandoned promises, no new strategies are presented to address the challenges. The following are examples;
At paragraph 49 of his address, the President mentions the nationwide crop failure and poor grazing due to inadequate rainfall that have set the farmers back. The President seems to have forgotten about the Agricultural Insurance Scheme that he pledged to introduce in 2008 to protect farmers against risks caused by climatic variability.
At paragraphs 77 and 78 His Excellency refers to our good performance in combating corruption. The recently released report on the BDC that detailed acts of corruption at the highest decision making levels in government are ignored by the President. In the case of BDC, the employee who sought to expose the corrupt activities lost her job and remains without compensation let alone recognition for her efforts. The Whistle Blowing Legislation that the President promised in the 2011 State of the Nation Address is no longer priority for the government and those who seek to expose corruption should know that they do so at their own risk.
At paragraph 129 the President announces that BHC has completed 402 houses, which we all know is far short of meeting the demand for housing by Batswana in urban and peri-urban areas. No mention is made of the tenant purchase scheme or the fund that the President previously promised to set up to facilitate the financing of home loans.
At paragraph 190 the President mentions the impressive performance of the Botswana athletes and that this year six Batswana football players joined the professional ranks. The President makes no mention of his 2008 promise in the state of the Nation Address when he stated that there will be appearance fees for national team games and monthly allowances for local athletes in the Premier League, First Division (North and South).
It should not come as a surprise that most of the respondents to a snap survey carried out by the Midweek Sun were highly pessimistic of the speech, with one respondent labelling it an old tired song.
The address follows the monotonous precedent of the ones that came before it. The address misses what the BCP and the nation considers as key challenges facing our nation and as such fails to come up with innovative solutions to our problems. This government has a formidable record of lofty promises that have never been fulfilled. It is for this reason that, the BCP has decided to make a proper diagnosis of the challenges facing this nation and providing solutions to them.
Corruption
We are extremely saddened by the institutionalisation of corruption by the ruling class in our country. We will all recall that sometime early this year, the Secretary General of the ruling BDP made a startling remark that, the opposition should learn to accept and live with the fact that, the BDP is the ruling party with a full mandate from Batswana and more significantly but sadly, that as the ruling party‘it is our time to eat!.’ This is a disturbing statement coming from somebody in the high echelons of power in the ruling BDP. Notably, the BDP and its leader have never disassociated themselves from the Secretary General’s statement. No action has been taken against the Secretary General by his party. In the circumstances, we can safely conclude as we hereby do, that the position of the BDP is that, they have been elected into power to eat and the opposition do not have the right to complain when the BDP is ‘eating’ public funds. It is your time to eat. We view this statement by the BDP as a clear and unequivocal admission that, the BDP led government endorses and has in fact institutionalised corruption.
We have always believed that when we take active participation in politics, we do so with the burning desire to serve our beloved country. The BCP believes that, it participates in the politics of this country because it believes it can rule it better for the benefit of all Batswana. We believe that when Batswana mandate anyone to lead them, they are entrusting that party with the responsibility to run the economy of the country for and on their behalf and for the interest of all Batswana. The BCP is certain that Batswana have not mandated the BDP to milk this country dry through corruption as suggested by its Secretary General. The BDP’s conduct in this regard constitutes a serious breach of trust and acting beyond the authority given to them by the people. We wish to warn this regime that there will be consequences for the path they have chartered- that of ‘eating’ public funds with impunity and deep seated arrogance.
The revelation by the Secretary General is consistent with the conduct of the BDP for the last 47 years. They have consistently sabotaged and used their majority in parliament to frustrate all attempts to enact any law which is intended to fight corruption for instance;
They have sabotaged and defeated a motion calling for declaration of assets by those who hold power. They have also defeated without good cause, a proposal for a private members bill by the BCP on the law on declaration of assets.
They have ignored calls for the enactment of a law on insider trading and abuse of information held by those in powerful positions.
They have defeated a law on freedom of information for no good cause.
They have consistently frustrated and rejected calls by the opposition for political party funding by the state. The leadership of the DCEC has in the past publicly stated the need for public funding of political parties as a way of reducing the incidence of corruption amongst the political leadership.
This government has always opposed all attempts to have a more independent DCEC who are adequately and sufficiently equipped to deal with the rising incidents of corruption.
All the above laws are geared towards enhancing our capacity to combat corruption. This therefore means that the BDP is not genuinely against corruption and is not committed to eradicating it. This attitude is in line with the BDP position that, it is their time to eat. They do not want any law that will interfere with their ‘eating of public funds’. Under President Khama, individuals accused of corruption are worthy of cabinet positions.
It is also not surprising that, media reports have it that, we have our very own Khama-gate scandal unfolding right before our eyes. It’s their time to eat, which is why there are serious issues surrounding the building of the president’s villa at Mosu. It’s their time to eat, that’s why they are using state resources to construct an air field at the door steps of the president’s private residence at Mosu for use by the president. If we are to agree that the airfield will be open to the public, what public facility is there which is intended to be serviced by the air field except only for the private use of the president at his private residence. If indeed the airfield was meant to be a public facility, why then was the land allegedly applied for and obtained by the president in his personal capacity.
The BCP takes the corruption allegations made against the president surrounding the construction of his private residence and the accompanying air field very seriously. We will in due course be approaching the relevant authorities to demand a full and credible investigation of this matter and if anybody is found to be implicated, he must be held to account. The prevarication by Dr Jeff Ramsay on the matter makes the government position difficult to follow let alone agree with. The nation requires to be informed of the total costs of the project, the government expenditure on same, the manner of procurement of all material used for the project, the personnel and indeed the contractors involved in the project. Eye witnesses interviewed in the village of Mosu confirmed that government vehicles and personnel were involved in the construction of the Presidential compound. Was PPADB involved in the procurement process and if not why? All these issues can be properly ventilated through a credible investigation and we so demand.
Some of the honourable ministers will hear me out that recently during the Khawa event a minister chartered a plane from Gaborone to attend the event.This, we are informed, was done without following the necessary PPADB procurement processes. This is a matter that we also plan to report for investigation and hope the relevant minister will be made to fully account. You may be aware that government is currently in the process of procuring some land in Namibia as storage facilities for imported petroleum products. Once again madam speaker some “cats-pours’ of some ministers and ambassadors are visible in the transaction.
The BCP has engaged a team to investigate the matter and I can confidently tell you that all is not well in the entire transaction. We say all this madam speaker in order to demonstrate that BDP has no potential and/or capacity to root out corruption. BDP goes to bed with corruption. We sadly agree that, it is indeed their time to ‘eat’, that’s why they brought BMC to its knees, BDC close to bankruptcy, and Morupule power project into a total mess.
This is why we do not have water in the southern part of the country because they ate our money and supplied substandard pipes to the North South carrier water project which keeps failing. They are busy eating while all our key sectors are falling apart from health, education, water, power, and many others. The BCP want to make it clear, that you must eat very fast because your end is approaching very fast and everyone implicated will be held to account, and you will account and in your absence your estates will account.