Batswana led like sheep to the slaughter!
Michael Dingake | Tuesday June 27, 2017 17:23
The President is accompanied by his sidekick Shaw Kgathi, the Minister of Defence, Justice and Security (DJS) who normally should be negotiating the deal, but has taken the back seat. I wonder, why? Could aggression be that imminent that arms deal negotiations are done by commanders-in-chief? Sweden historically played a peacekeeping role by condemning the USA for napalming the Vietnamese when Olof Palme was Premier!
Palme condemned the atrocities committed by the USA without fear or hesitation at every convenient world forum; now we have Stefan Lovren pleading no patronising by journalists, when he without a pang of conscience plunges into it in order to seal the deal at the mock press-conference-cum-negotiating-table! Why does Sweden and the rest of the imperialist world try to keep developing countries, Africa in particular, engaged in conflicts?
Why do they sell us weapons when we need technology to improve our lives? Do they think we are made to kill one another in perpetuity? Without western military hardware industries, with our bow and arrows we would be better off.
Batswana need to know what the Domkrag government knows about the impending external attack sole whose objective appear to be to enrich the Swedes with P15 billion bonus, search me for what? Uninformed,we would have the right to suspect that our political leaders may be imperialist agents.
Who in the region, currently enjoying relative peace is threatening Batswana, such that we can decide to fore-go obvious priorities of our national development? Is it the RSA with whom we have enjoy good neighbourliness for century? How ungrateful would they be, forgetting that we were brothers-in-arms in the crazy old days Apartheid when loonies raided our capital and demanded Limpopo Accord to duplicate the Nkomati Accord coerced on Mozambique.
We said no and never shall we sell our brothers and sisters down South; could it be Namibia to the west with whom we tiffed over Sedudu Island, but resolved cordially through diplomacy? Or is it Zimbabwe our Northern neighbour with a demoralised populace facing 80% runaway unemployment, or Zambia on the verge of a civil war between Edgar Lungu and the feeling-cheated opposition of Hakainde Hichilema?
Beyond these neighbours, it wouldn’t make sense. Countries usually fight over borders! Who is feeding the bloodcurdling information to the BDP government to say that our days of peace are numbered? Is it the DISS, MI or some Intelligence outfit, we haven’t heard of? Unless Batswana have information of enemy or potential enemy in ambush, they’ll never believe the security threat compelling us to empty our coffers!
Have we degenerated to the level of the Dear-Leader nuclear- testing maniac, keeping the world on tenterhooks? It’s comical, more exceptional than Dear-Leader’s circus occasioned by US bully and satellites - South Korea and Japan!
From the look of things, war threat against Botswana is imminent and inevitable. It should be the BDF or the Ministry of DJS negotiating the arms procurement. But no, it’s the President himself! The nation ought to know, so as to be psychologically prepared for impending war calamity; when people are aroused they fight like the Russian civilians who fought hand-to-hand, street-by-street in the Battle of Stalingrad. Bows and arrows may come handy as well, when the common man/woman is timeously informed!
Shortly after the RSA freedom, we know the new government was lured to buy the Gripens in the unresolved arms deal scandal. Palm-greasing allegedly clinched the deal! Was the pattern reproduced in this case? The question comes unsolicited. Could this be the source of lack of public service delivery, which has been running inextinguishably like the wildfire that ravaged the scenic Garden Route along Knysna, in Mzantsi?
Equipment of the nature of the Gripens attracts maintenance costs; it doesn’t come mahala. The amount of maintenance will depend on the rate of depreciation the stupid war toys will attract. Generally, it will be enormous. I once asked a question in Parliament about how much the maintenance of Eagle Project (Mapharangwane by another name), would cost and was shocked by the staggering figures: Construction expenditure approximately P600,000,000; maintenance P1.5 million annually with 10% escalation every year! Twenty years? You calculate the expenditure! Did we need Mapharangwane? P15 billion Gripen Fighter jets, I assume will attract that sort of maintenance and depreciation expenditure. How much debt do we mean to impose on our unborn children?
What priorities shall Batswana forfeit by this mammoth un-wisdom? Already unemployment is sky high, BCL and other state companies are going belly-up, quality education has gone to the dogs, and students have to ride on donkey carts to school. No matter! Batswana must not allow themselves to be misled like sheep to the slaughter.