Botswana can learn form Pistorius case

Mmegi Editor | Thursday March 13, 2014 17:06

Even us who are beyond the South African judicial jurisdiction have gotten more information on the events leading to Oscar’s killing of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on February 14, 2013. We have even taken sides.  All this can be attributed to the power of information sharing and dissemination - a live broadcast of the case, something very rare the world over.

The broadcast came to live after an application by MultiChoice, digital satellite television service provider arguing that the athlete, Oscar, is an international star, and therefore the international audience needed to watch his trial to the end.  The court weighed all the arguments and ruled in favour of a live broadcast.

This gesture does not only benefit the international audience, it will also boost the country’s global ranking on the independence of the judiciary, its fairness, and most importantly its credibility.  With a Constitution ranked amongst world’s best, South Africa has positioned herself as among the world’s top class nations only in competition with developed western democracies, just 20 years into independence. 

The same cannot be said about our country, which is approaching 50 years of independence. Although we are constantly showered with accolades, by some faceless cheerleaders whose motive remain suspect, we can testify that ours is facing a regression.  Transparency has suddenly been outlawed in favour of secrecy and propaganda. Asking for information from a government department, be it from the judiciary, the executive and lately the National Assembly, has become an impossible endevour.  In addition to questionnaires that are a prerequisite for requesting information from government officials, public relations officers have come up with another ‘innovation’. They now demand scanned signatures, photographs and all sorts of thing. They don’t care what kind of information one may be requesting, it’s the questionnaire or nothing.

On the other hand, their daily invitations for coverage of donations can be best equated to a raging flood. The officers do not only demand coverage, they nag their invitees, particularly journalists, as if someone is pointing a gun at their head.  Poor souls. Then they turn around, take weeks, even months to respond to questionnaires for which objectives are just to disseminate public information. Laws governing the flow of information were formulated in the 1950s, but some individuals in the government are hell-bent the laws are still relevant. We should move with the times, be progressive, and thrive to be counted amongst the best in the world, as compared to the best amongst the worst.