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.
“Wish it. Plan it.Do it”– Jaipal SinghHowever, as President Duma Boko prepares to deliver his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, the pressure is mounting for him to account for his government’s performance and demonstrate what it has achieved thus far. Batswana are increasingly impatient and want to see tangible results that translate into improved livelihoods. The public is no longer interested in ambitious political...