The tale of the report that grew legs

Tumie Modise | Tuesday October 3, 2017 18:20

A few journalists have written about this, a few brave members of the public too, to no avail. The only problem with this matter, which we all would rather not talk about is, until it comes to a conclusion, the incessant questions are not going to stop anytime soon.

It is part of our culture to accord respect to the departed. It matters not how the person was; whether they were criminals, spouse abusers or hopeless drunks, when their date with their Maker comes, we all show compassion and kindness, especially to their loved ones and forget about everything else. Even if they owed you, most times we just write off the debt then carry on with our lives life. Dead people tell no tales. Speaking of the departed and tales, most times when a person departs, instead of accepting the sad situation (we are all going to die someday), we go into denial mode then play blame games. In this country, if I may add, it is almost accepted that 90% of dead husbands get ‘killed’ by their wives while all wives die of natural deaths. We love conspiracies.

So it is not very surprising that when a much loved political leader perished a few years ago from what the State immediately ruled as a motor vehicle accident some denied that outright and cried foul. Granted, it is not unusual for deaths of prominent people to be clouded by controversies. This is the third year since that controversy and sadly the same people who cried foul, inciting the nation in the process, are seemingly now playing cat-and-mouse with the same nation.

The first actor in that Tom and Jerry poor script was the UDC leader Duma Boko. Three weeks after the accident, he stated at a press conference that preliminary findings were pointing to foul play. Not only that, he already had a suspect and that suspect was the State! This was said only a month before the 2014 general elections.

The next actor was the then BMD leader, Ndaba Gaolathe. Speaking at his party’s congress exactly a year after the accident, the emotionally-charged leader warned members of his party and the nation to desist with their demands for the findings of the report from his party, advising them to rather demand answers from the government. He reportedly charged; ‘Lesang go bogola batho ba (investigators) ka gore ba tsentse matshelo a bone mo diphatseng. The people you want answers from are those in government, they are the ones who should explain what happened to our brother NOT US”. Turns out, dogs have been attending their congresses all along, only we didn’t know.

Minutes later, he reportedly changed tact, washed his hands and quipped; “The nation should not EXPECT the report from the UDC. Rather from the investigation team. The investigating team will give you the report. The UDC can only update you how far the team is with their investigations.” (Botswana Gazette, July 25, 2015). This simple request for accountability was now fast escalating into something that resembles a lover’s quarrel with those who contributed now being dared to bring forth their receipts for refunds, presumably to shut them up for good.

 From my experience with people with a fundamental aversion to the truth, anger and arrogance are usually the first signs that a person is aware that you have an inkling that what they are giving you is in fact just that, alternative facts. Sometimes when pushed further they may even become violent.

Next actor: the new BMD president,   Sidney Pilane. Asked about this report, which by now must be a mess of cobwebs and dust a few weeks ago, he outrightly denied knowledge of the report. Because God works in mysterious ways, he then let it slip that it was he, and not the nation, who settled the P16,000 report bill.

Two years later, still no sign of this report. Last week, the nation was shocked to learn, during Rre Gaolathe’s radio interview, that this report in fact was still ‘not ready’’. Perhaps fearing his nemesis Pilane, who recently spectacularly disposed him from that party coup de tat style, maybe he has had a change of mind because even though his version is still highly implausible, at least he is taking some form of responsibility this time around. You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. Only time will tell.