Khama shocked by 'marriage' inclusion in speech

EPHRAIM KEORENG
Staff Writer | Tuesday February 28, 2012 00:00

 

However, this time around no one was asking the bachelor president when he is getting hitched.

That is, perhaps, apart from his speechwriter.

Khama was going through his speech at the BDP function when the word jumped at him from the text.

'I don't know why he included this part about marriage,' he said about his unnamed speechwriter, throwing the audience into fits of laughter. Khama, who turned 58-years-old yesterday, has always been under immense pressure to marry.

'Fellow democrats, every 50th anniversary - whether it be in the lifetime of an individual, or the endurance or subsistence of a marriage, or the existence of an organisation (including a political party such as our own), is a laudable and worthy achievement, and is a significant milestone. We have, therefore, valid cause and justification to celebrate not only our existence as a party over the last 50 years, but moreso our triumph over diverse adversities and challenges during those years,' Khama, who is also the BDP president, told the gathering which included Tanzanian president, Jakaya Kikwete and South African deputy president, Kgalema Motlanthe.

He said the BDP is proud that Batswana, in every successive general election since 1965, have consistently returned the ruling party to office. He said the BDP's management of the country's affairs has seen the transformation of Botswana from a weak and fledgeling nation at birth, with bleak prospects of survival, to the structurally sound middle-income state that it is today.

Khama also said the national cohesion and spirit of unity, in spite of ethnic and language differences or boundaries is another success that his BDP government is celebrating.

'We have pursued, and continue to pursue, practical and prudent mineral and mining policies, which have generated substantial revenues for our development, and we remain vigilant to safeguard them from extractive undertakings which would result in their depletion without commensurate value and thereby mortgage the futures and destinies of generations yet to come. Even more remarkable has been our success in fostering the understanding by our fellow citizens that this republic's natural resources are for the benefit and enjoyment of all who live in it, and not solely the inhabitants of the areas or localities in which they occur,' he said.

The president added that water is channeled and pumped from Letsibogo Dam in the north for use by communities in the south of the country, and that mineral revenue from the mining of diamonds like in Jwaneng and Orapa is used for development countrywide, and not merely for the district in which they occur.

'If it is borne in mind that much of the conflicts and instabilities on this continent have as their origin contestations about inequitable or biased resource allocations and unbalanced development, the importance of this feat cannot be overemphasised. So here, is yet further cause for our celebration,' he said.