When the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) took over government last November, the coalition’s supporters were cheering on, hoping President Boko to remake the government by removing multiple senior officials linked to the previous Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) regime. As the new government took over after 58 years of BDP rule, many expected heads to start rolling with multiple senior officials fired, reassigned, or even designated to be laid off. This week, Boko admitted that initially, there were some senior officials on his kill list, but he was later made to realise that removing them could collapse the system.
Addressing a press conference this week, he disclosed that there was a staunch BDP member he wanted to fire when he took office. Boko said he felt the person deserved to be fired, but he was told that the person was the best performer. “Even the UDC diehards were petitioning me not to touch the guy. I ended up signing his contract renewal,” Boko said. He said he could not ignore the gentleman's merit. Boko was reiterating the same sentiments he told Accounting Officers last month in their meeting. Boko, who was expected to wield new power from the outset, told the media that firing everyone would not have made sense. “You always think too much. These people who say people must be fired, what is going on in their minds? You fire how? This is the rule of law. You fire everybody, you collapse the system in an instant, and then say I failed because there was nobody to work,” he noted.
