�Le nyatsa batho�

Thalefang Charles | Friday April 1, 2016 17:38

This Could Be Us. Local journalists enjoying the luxuries in train travelling through South Africa. BR Express has announced that they would not be be offering alcohol in the train

As he was getting expansive in his response, there was an attempt by journalists to chip in and remind the minister that the question was rather, “Why those passengers in sensitive transport modes like airplanes are allowed to freely imbibe while us the train lot are barred?”

Although at the end Mabeo seemed unsure whether to commit to the “passenger’s safety” as the main reason that inspired his decision since he announced that it was “our executive decision” (together with BR management I believe) to bar alcohol in train, it was clear that train passengers are discriminated against.

The minister’s response suggests that government and the BR management believe that local train passengers cannot control themselves like their aircraft counterparts. It is public knowledge that the current administration abhors alcohol. They have almost outlawed leisure drinking in Botswana making us seem like we are some kind of a secular state that believes alcohol is a sin. For instance, convicted drunk drivers are the only ones shamed by publishing their names in newspapers while that is not the case with rapists, child molesters and corrupt individuals looting our national coffers who get pardoned. It is not farfetched to believe that it is this institutional hatred for alcohol that could have possibly inspired the banning of liquor in the new passenger train.

The train has far better and safer drinking facilities than airplanes. Unlike in airplanes there is a separate buffet van with restaurant like facilities complete with toilets. There are even detention cells for transgressors.

Banning alcohol in the train because in the past there were some undesirable elements that disturbed peace is like amputation of the whole leg to solve a sore toe nail. Such a destructive solution is not necessary.

Even on aircrafts there are cases where drunken passengers became a complete nuisance and posed serious danger to the whole aircraft but that did not lead to a blanket banning of alcohol in all planes. The minister has announced that they have outsourced security in the train and we expect that the security company should be handling any cases of unruly behaviour that poses risks to passengers’ safety.

The government should understand that Batswana do not really need that passenger train - it is after all the same government that proved it by just discontinuing the train services and we just went on with our lives.

Our road network built over 50 years offers the best alternative mode of travel. Botswana is among the top countries in Africa with the best road transport network.

But the train trip is not just about moving from point A to B.

Maybe as a transport minister, Mabeo might not understand this but he should ask the minister of tourism. Although he was named after one of the notorious alcohol nemesis, ‘Rra Gonkgang’, Tshekedi Khama has grown fond of and understands the value of liquor to tourism and travel. In 2016 an eight-hour trip between Gaborone and Francistown is a snail-pace (maybe in 1966 it was a lightening speed), so slow trains like the BR Express should be used for leisure travel.

We should market the train travel as leisure travel. People should want to ride the train for the fun of the trip not necessarily for the need to arrive at their destination on time and much faster.

That is what such slow trains like ours are for these days, anyway.

Trains for business travel are high-speed bullet machines like the Gautrain in South Africa. If the minister and the BR board are serious about return on investment from the train they should allow leisure drinking on the train.

This country has a small population and a project like this should not only be employed with tunnel vision of saying it is transport business but with innovation and broad thinking of contributing to the economy.

And I would like to conclude this by painting my own picture of a passenger train that would bring a return of investment and benefit Botswana’s economy. It is a picture of my friends on board a train in South Africa. They were paid to travel by train from Pretoria to Durban and on board they were served with the multi-filtered and aged single malt whiskeys, they puffed from imported Cohibas and dined on exotic culinary while riding the train - expensive stuff.

There were no fights or puking, I confirmed this. So we, in Botswana, while travelling to Palla-Road station should have expensive clear liquor aboard the BR Express and be like VIPs in airplanes’ First Class, unless “le nyatsa batho”.