Who may be �lost souls?�
Michael Dingake | Tuesday April 15, 2014 12:13
Thus flattered the president could utter words of a conquering general: “I will not apologise……I am not a dictator? ... ” I this, I that, me.., my..! He went on to describe his critics as “frustrated lost souls in the opposition…” Lost souls according to the bible end up in hell, the eternal fire. One prays this hell-fire was real and there was the afterlife! ‘Lost souls’ depicted on earth by the president would swap places with those who see ‘lost souls’ in their critics on earth. Unthinking, the president contradicts himself when he states: ‘I will not apologise’…. And then bluffs, ‘I am not a dictator! ’Well, people who won’t apologise are worse than Oscar Pistorius, who kills his girlfriend, sobs in court to apologise to her family under cross-examination in court! Those who won’t apologise for what they are being criticised or indicted for, can’t be less than dictators. By denying he is a dictator, yet struts around swearing he won’t apologise when his mistakes are fingered, implies he is a top brass dictator!
Dictator is someone who thinks he/she is always right; someone who is beyond reproach, an infallible person on par with the pope of Rome when he interprets church doctrine. Khama is not the pope when he interprets democracy and its principles. Imagine Idi Amin Dada, Adolf Hitler or Josef Stalin apologising to anybody for anything; wouldn’t it be a contradiction in terms? Only a democrat says mea culpa when wrong; when he/she is right he/she need not apologise since the majority will bear witness to his story, but when criticised he/she must pause and check whether he/she may be wrong. “I will not apologise….I am not a dictator,” betrays a dictator incarnate!
Last week’s column portrayed ‘‘Khama, the confused president, sowing confusion.”
Those who listened to Gabz Fm, Breakfast with Reg on April 8, 2014, must have sensed the confusion I was writing about was deepening and spreading like wild fire; seed of confusion has fallen on fertile ground. Khama can’t honestly say he isn’t confused and he isn’t confusing more and more Batswana. Majority callers to the ‘Breakfast with Reg programme’ were of the opinion that since the constitution immunises Khama against personal litigation, he can trample on this custodian of human rights, the constitution; they fail to understand that the same constitution obliges him to defend the rights of all Batswana, to defend the constitution itself! He is obliged to obey the constitution, he swore on the bible to do so! When Khama violates the constitution, he acts unconstitutionally; the constitution must deal with him!
The next batch of Batswana Khama, is confusing is the BOFEPUSU; the leadership though apparently un-intimidated, is confused due to the general membership level of comprehension of trade unionism. One moment you think BOFEPUSU grasps its political role when it talks about ‘go hira mohiri (hiring the employer). The next moment spokespersons entangle themselves, targeting individual party candidates, who don’t support workers’ demands, irrespective of political party. Herein lies supreme confusion in BOFEPUSU ranks. It is impossible to isolate BDP candidates from the BDP, the ruling party. BDP MPs we know, vote as a block in Parliament in terms of their collective responsibility demanded by their binding caucus decisions on any issue, on the floor of Parliament. What a potential BDP MP says before becoming MP outside parliament is a nullity when he/she enters parliament; the caucus decision holds sway. Voting for a sweet-tongued BDP candidate does not change his party allegiance. The argument advanced by BOFEPUSU that BOFEPUSU is an organisation with party members across the political spectrum is true, but confusion-tainted when applied to effect ‘go hira mohiri!’ Trade unions priority interest is to change the regime which denies workers their interests! Labour unions must make up their minds whether to vote for a party that has priority worker interest at heart or party with their parents’ priority sentiments at heart. Regime change or status quo is the question! It can’t be both ways, except in confusion.
The mother of all confusion harboured by some workers, is the lie that trade unionism is incompatible with politics - the lie is peddled by political parties who serve the interests of the exploiting class, parties who rejoice about workers unemployment, parties who think nothing of workers salaries’ corroded by inflation, parties who arrogantly undermine consultation processes legally prescribed for negotiations – the Bargaining Council. Working class woes are a product of the oppressor class parties. Nothing less, nothing more! Chief Albert John Luthuli, former president of the African National Congress (ANC) addressing the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) the predecessor of COSATU in 1959 noted:
“I am glad that SACTU has not listened to the ill-advice that they should not be interested in politics. There is a Zulu saying that if you are pricked by a thorn you have to use a thorn to get it out. Workers are oppressed by political action they must take political (party)action in reply.” Amen!