Gobe Matenge's social engineering through Botswana's 10th Independence anniversary celebrations in 1976
Friday, June 08, 2018
Some of the embarrassing behavioural attitudes Batswana were accused of included fighting over food in public places, disrespecting the national anthem, and being discourteous in providing service particularly telephone operators. Matenge’s social engineering was also meant to be a long term change in attitudes of the citizenry. After the country celebrated its 30th anniversary of Independence in 1996, a presidential task force was set up to devise a long term vision for the country.
The result was a document known as ‘Vision 2016’ which envisaged Botswana to be a prosperous country by 2016 when the country celebrates its 50th anniversary of Independence which was attained in 1966. Vision 2016 also raises similar concerns of Batswana not being patriotic and lacking pride in national symbols amongst other issues. Ironically, while in 1976 undesirable attitudes of the country’s overwhelmingly rural populace was blamed on lack of contact with the ‘outside world’ or foreign cultures, by the turn of the new millennium globalisation or ‘too much’ international influence was now blamed for people’s negative attitudes.
The recent disclosure by the IEC that 2,513 registrations have been turned down due to various irregularities should prompt all Batswana to meticulously review the voters' rolls and address concerns about rejected registrations.The disparities flagged by the IEC are troubling and emphasise the significance of rigorous voter registration processes.Out of the rejected registrations, 29 individuals were disqualified due to non-existent Omang...