Think of the four Ds. later upped to five: Democracy, Development, Discipline, Dignity and Delivery. Some of us. if not most, had expected the Ds to take our Democracy to new heights - stimulate our Development, enforce the Discipline required for public service productivity, enhance the Dignity of Batswana and Deliver public services promptly and efficiently. Instead we have become used to witnessing diminishing returns on democracy and at best a stagnation; development, discipline, dignity and delivery have all become enigmatic, unattainable and sub-standard, displaying attributes diametrically opposite the objectives. Talk of unintended consequences!
Next, we have the alcohol levy which was meant to reconstitute Botswana society in the admirable image of teetotalers as envisaged by the President. If the irreligious pastor from Arizona has to be believed or at least if he has to be given the benefit of the doubt, Batswana have become a mass of alcoholic good-for-nothing creatures, devoted to indulgence in alcohol. The country reeks of alcohol according to Pastor Stephen Anderson. Could it be the reason why His Excellency gave the peripatetic and somewhat unhinged pastor quick marching orders, when he inadvertently implied HE’s punitive levy wasn’t working? Initially I had speculated that our President, by unceremoniously bundling the pastor out of the country, meant just to demonstrate his expertise in the military tactics he learnt at the academy. I was oblivious of the embarrassment the alcoholism outburst might have needled HE . Pastor’s outburst aside, HE’s alcohol levy impact, has still to be felt; what I have personally observed about its effects is that managed to drive Batswana weekend revelers out of Botswana to burn their hard-earned pula across the borders, thereby undermining the country’s trade surpluses, accentuating unemployment problems as our breweries, liquor wholesalers and retailers retrench staff to control production costs. Whichever way you look at the President’s alcohol levy, it missed its target.
