Politics in 2016 action sheet

Dithapelo Keorapetse | Friday January 8, 2016 12:28

The meeting will begin with the presentation of the Appropriation (2016/2017) Bill by the Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Kenneth Mathambo who straightaway thereafter will present the Budget Speech. The meeting is expected to last for 10 weeks, ending around April 8, 2016. MPs will try hard to debate the budget speech because last year many of them were unable to debate because of political maneuvering by the ruling party. It is widely hoped that Minister Mathambo will provide more details of the Economic Stimulus Programs (ESP). More details of the ESP have been sought by Batswana, the media, MPs and analysts without avail; the President failed dismally in this regard during his State of the Nation Address. 

After the general debates on the budget, there will be a detailed examination of the Appropriation Bill in what is called committee stage. A Committee of the whole House, with every Minister able to present their proposal and every MP able to contribute, will be convened. Every clause in the Bill is agreed to, changed or removed from the Bill, although changes and removals are rare especially as initiatives of MPs. Once the Committee stage is done, the Bill will return to Parliament for its report stage, where the amended Bill can be discussed and further amendments be proposed; it can then be passed and receive Presidential assent and become a law.

There is likely to be more fireworks in Parliament if Ministers maintain their posture of being equivocal, lying and withholding information when answering questions. This is frustrating not only to opposition MPs but, it would appear, to some in the ruling party’s backbench. The Speakership is not helping this situation. They would usually rebuke MPs with a standard response. “The minister has answered that question. It’s just that you don’t agree with his answer.” There is still a pending issue for the General Assembly to deal with and that is the issue of a high probability of Parliament in the entire budget session to be seized with one MP’s motions. The issue was put on the agenda of the General Assembly by the Business Advisory Committee but it is still pending. This issue, if not properly and expeditiously addressed, may cause problems.  The other issue is that committees are still dead and need urgent resuscitation. The issue is conveniently avoided in the House and at the General Assembly for the simple reason that oversight is detested by the ruling party; it is these committees which are supposed to closely scrutinise the executive arm but their leadership and nomenclature have rendered them useless. As said before, the opposition was ingenuous in agreeing to the insignificant changes made on the structure of Parliamentary Committees after the standoff; they should have refused these small changes and pressed for more serious changes. It has become clear to progressive MPs that some provisions of the Standing Orders are obsolete, irrelevant and unreasonable and because committees are not meeting, including the Standing Orders and Reform Committee, the 11th Parliament is likely to be stuck with this situation to the detriment of democracy and progress.

Political parties have already started their activities such as workshops and meetings to gear up for the year. For opposition political parties, this year is a very important one for the simple reason that a memorandum of understanding or agreement on by-elections has to be sealed so that for all the elections between now and 2019, they collectively retain seats they held and wrestle ones held by the ruling party. Secondly, the parties will have to start their negotiations for 2019 general elections whereat they will challenge the ruling party as a formidable unified force. It is a process that will preoccupy the top brass of these parties in terms of meetings and other related activities and members who will be watching with a hawk’s eye and giving support or pressure as and when the need arise. There may be joint activities such as rallies, workshops etcetera. In Parliament, there is a periodic joint opposition caucus and in councils which are controlled by the opposition there are working relationships as well.

The ruling party will continue its crusade of recruiting from the opposition by hook or crook. It is clear that the party uses its privileged position to buy weak and vulnerable opposition activists with promises of positions, small businesses, money and other materials. The ESP propaganda will intensify with little or nothing happening in terms of poverty, unemployment and underemployment reduction. More handouts will be dished but the fundamentals of the economy will remain weak or ever become weaker. Within the party itself, the power struggle is expected to heat up a little for the next intra-party elections. The succession battle is ongoing and there are shifts in alliances, strategising and plotting because to some it is not a simple matter and automatic that number two will become number one. The golden jubilee celebrations will be used as a serious propaganda where the ruling party’s achievements will be overstated. Opposition parties are likely to be sidelined so that they don’t have any space in the whole thing because they may present a critical appraisal of the 50 years of independence. It is interesting to see if the Democracy Research Project of the University of Botswana or the Botswana Society will convene symposiums, debates and activities on the 50 years of democracy. One thing is clear though, 2016 will be a year of activities characterised by excitement and jubilation, despair and surprises.