There will be no duels, just euthanasia

Kgosietsile Ngakaagae | Friday July 13, 2018 15:17

He believes, that the only reason why the other gentleman who accused him of a career in the motor industry is alive, is because it is illegal to kill him. If he could find some legal way of putting him out of the Umbrella constituency dilemma, he would be happy to allocate him Phomolong.

Make no mistake about it, the diatribe that was traded ahead of the coffee suggestion made grim reading.

The learned friend had a lot to say before and after. According to him, his adversary – who went all out on him- should be putting the affairs of his estate in order because when he emerges from the facility, he would be two hundred-years-old. Why and how exactly the latter threat will be executed is yet to be known.

What is clear, however, is that we might have to fill a handful body bags with opposition leaders before their members tremble into a duel with a fast drawing and sharp shooting BDP. Lest you forget, for 10 years, that party was the personal property of a Sandhurst graduate trained in all manner of shooting. So were you.

Meanwhile, the ruling party president is on an offensive, building bridges and knocking down anything and everything the past president built. Which is good.

Mind you, he is yet to construct anything with concrete. He is just playing brick breaker, knocking down stuff and enjoying himself at that.

It is not a difficult exercise. Apart from the personal Bombay programme going by the appellation, Presidential Housing Appeal, which was undoubtedly a huge and commendable success, that government was as miserable and as corrupt as it was clueless.

Were my learned friend to loan me his jailer skills before expending them on the likeable BCP leader, many BDP leaders would listen to the 2019 election results from a walled compound. And boy, the charm offensive is working so well even opposition voters are impressed.

I am impressed too. But they say shame on you if you fool me once, and shame on me if you fool me twice. I suggest that we keep the dagga in the matchboxes until half our graduate youth are off the streets, until there is equality before the law, and there are comprehensive programmes to assist those that could not go far with school.

I am not negative; just cautiously optimistic.  Of course, we are so tired of 10 years of gross misrule that we would have happily put a frog behind that nice desk. But you have to give it to a player, when his adversaries stand up in ovation at his every move. 

Except, some opposition leaders don’t see that. They are having an unending romance with their egos and cannot be bothered what happens in 2019.

Thanks to all that, the opposition are going to be clobbered big. As for me, I will vote for the best candidate regardless of party. During, and at the end of the Khama government, I was more than convinced we needed a change of government. The infiltration and annexation of the judiciary, the only sanctuary for the aggrieved citizenry, was the straw that broke the camel’s neck or back - whatever it was that was broken.

The quad-bike brigade overstayed their welcome by 10 long years. Now I feel that we can afford to wait until the constituency duels are over. We don’t want duels on the lawns of the State House.

Make no mistake about it, I am really worried about the opposition leaders being dead. Not just yet.

They haven’t learnt anything from past years of opposition infighting and strife. As it is, their project is on its deathbed.  The 2019 elections will be, properly, remembered as political euthanasia.

But then, I am worried. Thanks to the unending tensions and the duel and bayonets talk, we may well be on the brink of an era of contract killings amongst the opposition folk.

That is where politics go when issues take long to be resolved and tempers and enmity continues to rise to such extents leaders wish each other dead. In time the cup of discontent may overflow. Yes, we saw that in Bobonong.  Even if, as I hope, we never see a duel between our friends, some misguided elements may seek innovative ways of dealing with stubborn opposition.

The duels talk may sound cheap and immature, but it introduces into opposition thinking the use of violence as a possible, albeit undesired way of resolving disputes.

It would make sense for the party responsible to make a statement on such utterances lest some characters feel that if their leaders have neither the will nor temperament to execute desired but illegal outcomes, they could happily do it on their behalf.

In politics you have guys who totally surrender every sense to leaders. Of all parties, the BDP leaders have perfected the art of zombie making.

Not so long ago, someone asked on Facebook in the aftermath of the unfortunate killing of a politician; “kante ene Pilane ga a na badisa ne batho?” Iketeng betsho. Re godisa bana.