The opposition and other government critics are all over the place blasting the move to add teachers, veterinary services and diamond sorters to the essential service cadre. But they conveniently forget the long-term role they have played in allowing the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) to do as it pleases. They are glib on the sins of BDP, but conveniently quiet about their own. However, the fact is that we are in this situation because some of the people now making the loudest noise against the government were a part and parcel of fattening the BDP juggernaut. We are in this situation because certain people have been preaching water on the most popular strategy of ousting the BDP from power, but drinking copious amounts of wine on the matter. For years, they told us they knew what ailed them and the panacea for it. And yet, with Pavlovian frequency, they failed to swallow the elixir, however bitter. As for the BDP MPs who voted to defeat the motion seeking to stop Siele in his tracks, what else can we expect from them? Even for the conscientious ones, the die had long been cast and those who have left the BDP to form the Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) can testify about the perils of acting otherwise.
Hypocrisy can be a very costly business and history will judge the current crop of politicians very harshly.
