We warned govt on DIS - Saleshando
Dumelang Saleshando | Friday July 25, 2014 13:13
On behalf of all the delegates, I wish to express our collective gratitude to the Gaborone North constituency for having agreed to host this year’s congress. It can never be an easy task for any constituency to commit its human resource to the onerous logistics of preparing for such an important meeting on the eve of the general elections. In the run up to the 2009 general election, it was once more Gaborone North that hosted our annual meeting on the dawn of the general election.
Gaborone North is without doubt an important constituency for the BCP. In the last election, we lost the constituency to Botswana Democratic Party by a margin of 243 votes.
The BDP garnered 44% of the votes while we attained 41% with the remaining 15% of the votes going to the Botswana National Front. I trust that our Gaborone North constituency is now ready to capture this constituency for the BCP under the leadership of our National Chairperson who will be contesting as our Parliamentary candidate.
When we last met in Selebi-Phikwe, our party only had seven Members of Parliament. Today we have eight, having won the Francistown West by-election. Developments leading up to the by-election demonstrated the extent to which the BDP can go when faced with defeat. Elections were postponed on account of a fraudulent petition engineered by the BDP operatives.
The process of selecting candidates for the 2014 general elections was conducted in a calm and orderly manner. The BCP members have confidence in the fairness of our primary elections regulations. We must however not be complacent. The leadership will be more than happy to receive recommendations from constituencies on possible improvements to the regulations.
What we need to guard against, is a culture of entitlement by those who contest for primaries. The party should not be used as an employment agency by those who want to secure jobs as councillors or MP’s through the party ticket.
The BCP will be contesting the general elections for the fourth time since formation. This will undoubtedly be a very important election for our party. We should all make it a point that we campaign for the elections on the basis of our election manifesto and party policies. We have a strong positive message for Batswana as we go into the general elections and we should not be distracted by our opponents’ attempts to cast aspersions on the validity of our message. Some of the proposals that we have put forward in our manifesto have been tried and tested in many countries with impressive outcomes. Mother tongue refers to the use of a language that students are most familiar with as the language of instruction for early education. This ordinarily would be the language that the children use for communication in their homes. The BCP is a strong advocate for home language instruction in areas where Setswana is not the main language within a given locality.
Botswana has a total area of 581,730 square kilometres, making it the 48th largest country in the world. We are the same size as France, which has a population of 66 million while our population is only 2.1 million. Ironically, Batswana are unable to secure land for residence, business or agricultural activities. The average waiting period for a SHHA plot is over 20 years in Gaborone while the rich, including foreign nationals and those who are politically connected are able to secure numerous plots within short periods.
Our land authorities are plagued by inefficiency and corruption. There is no transparency in the management of land. The artificial shortage that has been created has led to high property costs and rentals. Many working people cannot afford decent houses. When the Directorate of Intelligence Services (DIS) was established in 2008, we warned that the law was designed in a way that was likely to promote corruption and looting of public funds. The law does not provide for accountability and Parliamentary questions on the DIS expenditure are never fully answered on the basis that national security will be compromised.
The chickens have now come home to roost. President Khama appointed a trusted friend to set up the Intelligence Unit and in turn, the Director General set up an organisation that has become a passage way for looting the state. The President has clearly become a beneficiary of funds looted through the DIS by virtue of funds deposited to the Serowe North Development Trust. As a partner in crime, he finds it difficult to act against Isaac Kgosi. The DIS has been moved from the Ministry of Defence Justice and Security to the office of the President in order to further protect the Director General against prosecution.
There has always been a strong perception that the DCEC is only swift to act in cases that involve those who are not politically connected. They have failed to hand over the Isaac Kgosi docket to the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) but continue to chase all those suspected of petty corruption. The DCEC is now focused on protecting the DIS head and seeking to ensure that he suffers no further embarrassment through exposure of his corrupt practices in the private press. Clearly, the DCEC has lost the moral authority to mount any investigation on any member of the public, up until they ensure that Isaac Kgosi is prosecuted.
Our key message to Batswana is that we are Ready to Lead Botswana out of the Crossroads. There is an alternative to failing public school, a collapsing health sector, unemployment, poverty, corruption, land shortage and politics of the Red Cross that focus on distributing blankets. The BCP believes that there is an alternative to Ipelegeng, Green Scorpion, Constituency Tournaments and Tirelo Sechaba.
A vote for the BCP in the coming election will allow us to unleash a campaign to Bring Back Our Jobs. Many jobs that have been created through Botswana’s raw materials are sustaining the lives of many foreign nationals while our own people remain poor. Many young people with a desire to work for themselves will have a new beginning under the BCP government as we will accord them the opportunity to be gainfully employed in cutting and polishing the 82% of our diamonds that have created jobs in countries like India and Israel. The copper and nickel of Selebi Phikwe should create jobs in Botswana and not in Europe. Our cattle leather should open up manufacturing plants that can create dignified jobs for our people.
The annual Motsamai Mpho tour that we launched last year, will this year cover more constituencies under the theme Bring Back our Jobs. Details of the tour will be provided in due course by the party office and the tour will conclude our campaign for the 2014 general elections.
In the run up to our 2014 independence day, the BCP will work on a detailed document establishing the number of jobs we have exported as a country to sustain the economy of other countries. This will inform the Bring Back Our Jobs Campaign that our government will launch in October if we win the elections.