Of a callous cabinet and a lame duck parliament

| Friday February 26, 2010 00:00

It started when then Vice President Ian Khama was appointed Minister of Presidential Affairs and Public Administration and Coordinator of Government Projects. But the man who wielded such immense power never saw fit, or rarely ever did, to attend Parliament to bring members up to date with what he was doing; this notwithstanding the fact that he was also the member for Serowe North, the seat that would be 'inherited' by Khama's younger brother, Tshekedi, upon the Vice President ascending to the presidency when then President Festus Mogae retired in 2008.

In the musical chairs of Botswana politics, President Khama immediately promoted his former boss in the army, Lieutenant General Mompati Merafhe, from the position of one of the longest serving foreign affairs ministers in the world to Vice President, thus ensuring his most eloquent defender.

In media interviews after ascending to the presidency two years ago, Khama declared himself as one wary of politics. But the journalists who had the rare opportunity of interviewing him failed to ask the critical question of what he was doing in the business if he couldn't care less for it? To-date no-one has raised the question, and in the meantime, President Khama has increasingly displayed another loathing - an incontestable phobia for the press.

But his views of politics as an unworthy business is not only incompatible with his eminent office of Head of State and Government; it is posing a threat to nation's culture of democracy and its institutions before some of them were fully-fledged. This may be seen in his cabinet ministers alacrity to emulate him in their contempt for backbenchers and members of the opposition as displayed by the flippant quality of their answers in the House.

The Botswana Parliament has infact become the most glaring victim of the assassination of democracy by its reduction to a sham with which the all-powerful Executive could not be bothered on just any issue. The most recent - but on no account important, who cares? - was the establishment of so-called Constituency Games by the Office of the President. In this instance, for a change the majority of MPs expressed their displeasure with the new-fangled phenomenon, pointing out that it was an unmitigated waste of time and money that should be better channelled into worthy projects like the maintenance of the country's roads and construction of new ones, the building of more hospitals and the upgrading of existing ones, the construction of more schools and IT-oriented training facilities, more focused and equitable citizen empowerment, as well as the provision of more street-lighting to combat crime, among others.

It came to light that the government has spent over P25 million on football matches under this curious phenomenon in 2009 alone. In the process, the structures created to run sports in the country are being sidelined as public funds and nobody is held accountable. Some of the MPs have suggested that the money could be used to educate the youth in fields such as leather processing, farming, basic mechanics and plumbing by means of which to sustain themselves.

But in the face of these unusually well marshalled arguments, President Khama announced in his public interactions that more codes were to be added to the constituency Games, among them drama and morabaraba.

The ministers single-mindedly defend the already notorious phenomenon for purportedly keeping the youth busy and away from destructive behaviour of alcohol abuse, sex and crime. The Assistant Minister of Local Government, Botlogile Tshireletso, has actually gone as far as saying young people in her constituency of Mahalapye East were experiencing new levels of high spirits, thanks to the phenomenon of Constituency Games!

Another shocking revelation was made in the current session by a frustrated MP for Kgatleng East, Isaac Mabiletsa, who Wednesday said the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning had cut expenditure for the 2009-10 financial year by over P500 million without bothering to consult the same Parliament that approved the budget.

This means some projects have been cancelled and may never be implemented after MPs made promises to their voters that such would be delivered within certain time frames. This is particularly disturbing after it was reported that President Khama had made remarks to the effect that some constituencies would be punished because they voted for opposition parties, Mabiletsa being of the Botswana National Front. Such reports are also disconcerting to outspoken MPs of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party who are viewed with intense disapproval for allegedly being 'anti-Khama'. One such MP is Botsalo Ntuane of Gaborone West South who this week made his fears known as a result of such reports.

MPs complain about lack of resources at their constituency offices that compels  them to use their own vehicles and money while their counterparts in Cabinet are driven to Kgotla meetings in government vehicles. They further complain that they arrive late at the meetings only to earn the wrath of ministers who think nothing of declaring such meetings closed upon the poor MPs' arrival. Under the present circumstances, the Botswana Parliament is unlikely to become an independent institution.

The Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration is the one who makes requests for its budget and oversees its day-to-day operations. An MP must first seek permission from the House to table a private member's bill. At the moment, MPs are awaiting Presidential Affairs Minister to present revised Standing Orders and have no inkling when that could be.

Another indication of a hopeless House that Fridays are set aside for MPs to present motions for debate, but ministers are rarely in attendance except for Vice President Mompati Merafhe and Ponatshego Kedikilwe of Minerals, Energy and Water Affairs. As if that was not enough, if an MP's motion is adopted, the government is not bound by any law to implement it. The fate of the motion will depend on the whims of the Cabinet to be formulated into a bill and subsequently passed into law if happens to meet its interests.

For example: a motion to amend the Constitution to increase Specially Elected MPs from four to eight that was tabled by Botlhogile Tshireletso a few months before the general elections last year was hastily drafted into a bill by then Presidential Affairs Minister Margaret Nasha but only failed to pass due to time limitations.

However, the same executive turned down a motion by Lobatse MP Nehemiah Modubule to prescribe the date of elections in the Constitution.

MPs have reason to worry after the President recently decided to go on a nationwide tour in which his image as a friend of the poorest of the poor is looming large.

On Wednesday this week, Khama appointed a committee to oversee the Rural Area Development Programme (RADC) from which MPs have been excluded.

This is in addition to his announcement last year that he wanted to create a forum where councillors could interact with cabinet ministers to share ideas.

Some of them only show up in the House to register their presence in order to qualify for sitting allowances. This has created a public perception they too are in it for themselves. They seem to pay little attention to the fact that the powerful cabinet has the state media in addition to its unlimited resources. Another challenge before the House is that members who harbour ambitions of one day becoming ministers are not independent of the current executive and find themselves blindly supporting positions against their better judgement.

But how did the judiciary earn its comparative autonomy from the executive that the legislature cannot seem to muster? Whatever it is, the legislature must do it as a matter of urgency to save the country from the monster in ministers and the executive presidency.