Ntlo ya Dikgosi should be our House of Lords
Friday, June 26, 2015
Kgosi Khama draping Kgosi Kgafela with a legendary leopard skin
We use the First-Past-the-Post electoral system, which allows the party with majority elected members to automatically take government. Assuming power is irrespective of the percentage of voters the majority party gets, as all it needs is 50 percent of the seats in Parliament.
The Westminster system has the House of Commons, an equivalent of Botswana’s House of National Assembly, or Parliament. Our colonial masters also have the House of Lords, which in our case, could be the Ntlo ya Dikgosi, which was for a long time before indigenising the name in the early 2000s was known as House of Chiefs.
That should concern every Motswana. The implications extend far beyond cattle and farmers. Botswana’s beef industry is a critical pillar of the economy, supporting thousands of households and sustaining businesses along the value chain.The loss of access to lucrative export markets has already demonstrated how quickly an animal-health crisis can become an economic crisis.This is, therefore, not the time for complacency, blame, or political...