Ground Report

It seems, since the coming of our current president Lieutenant General Ian Khama, a former army General, through the automatic succession, our country Botswana has gone steep down the hill in its democratic standings. The automatic system means that people are chosen a leader for, which means that who ever becomes the president is someone else’s choice. The system, originally, had not had any problems, since the chosen people had respect the rule of law, democracy and freedom of speech. That though had come to an end since the rising to power of our former army chief. When the current President ascended to the highest office, he introduced, the now infamous four D’s, being, DEMOCRACY, DEVELOPMENT, DIGNITY AND DISCIPLINE. Important to note that since then, only one D had been put into effect, being discipline, with Democracy being shoved off the back. According to the president, you cant have Democracy without Discipline, forcing him to forget all together about Democracy for the time being.

 

Since our President rose to power, all Government decisions had being based around his views, with anyone with a different view risking the wrath of power. Since his ascend to power, legislators have been recalled from their seats, made to apologize for their opinions, being removed from their constituencies’ standings to make way for his favorite people, and suspended from the party. The president of course, says all is in the name of discipline. Since he rose to the presidency, laws have been passed without much input from the legislators. The president through his cronies he has appointed as ministers have argued that, they are being effective and not wasting the publics’ money and time by discussing bills forever, as if the public had ever complained. In fact, the public argues that for laws to be of high quality and well informed they need to be discusses at length, with different views taken on board before that are finally ironed and passed  as law. In an unprecedented move, six laws had been passed in a matter of twenty minutes, something that had never happened in the history of Botswana. Legislators from the ruling party are given instructions on how to vote, and all bills coming from the ruling party, or better yet, imposed by the president through his cronies are given thumps up, while any law coming from the opposition, regardless of how good that bill is, is rejected, the ruling party definitely using its majority to suppress any voices of reason. Legislators are given only twenty minutes to contribute to a bill, and before they even get started, their time is already up.

 

Ironically, the laws passed in the Parliament had been shocking to say the least. First, the President announce through a village gathering, that since he hated beer so much, he was going to tax it at a rate of seventy percent, and that when people continued drinking, he was going to increase that to one hundred percent. Was it up to him he said, would ban beer all together. Why cant people just drink soft drinks, he argued. He said beer was the number one contributor of indiscipline. Maybe true to some effect, but certainly there are better alternatives. Through the intervention of the elders, the percentage was reduced to thirty percent instead, but that didn’t help the countries brewers as their distributors cancelled distributing to them deciding to distribute themselves. This has meant that beer produced in Botswana is more expensive than beer distributed from outside, meaning that people have just changed the beer they take, not reduced their drinking at all. Meanwhile, the countries brewer has had to retrench.

 

As if that was not shocking enough, another law passed again, without any input from the legislators. This one was an amendment to the road traffic fines, which suddenly shot though the roof. Driving without a seat belt on is five thousand, approximately USD1000, driving without a license, P10 000.00, or USD4000.00. All this would mean to be able to pay a fines, one may need to apply for a personal loan. All fines carry a prison term in failure to pay and the car is always impounded until payment is made. While the public was still shocked at this diabolic law, it came time for the traditional watch dogs to get their piece of the cake. A bill to regulate the journalist, called Media Bill was proposed. The bill, thanks to the journalist having more power than the ordinary people have caused a lot of noise, with the Media refusing it with all its conditions. But that haven’t stopped the Government from passing it anyway. Should Journalist publish anything “unethical” they are liable to pay a fine, go to jail should they fail, or both. Louder cries of Democracy being stumbled across have done nothing to damper the President mission of instilling discipline and all fell in death ears.

 

The President again, upon coming to power has introduced a secret service, which was questioned by many people. The president assured the public that it was to guard against terrorists or anyone who might be a threat to national security. Since their inception, more than seventeen people have been killed under mysterious circumstances. The vice President has once come out to say killing one or two people by the state should be no cause for alarm and that it wouldn’t be the last time it happened. The murders have been under investigation for a long time and no one has been questioned by the police. All the people killed have died in the Secret Officers hands, with one suspect shot in front of his father. Apparently, he had taken off when the police approached him, prompting them to shoot. Upon inspection, they found out it was no one they knew, and all they could do was to apologize to the father, arguing that he shouldn’t have ran if he had nothing to fear. One was shot under a hail of bullets, and even now all the investigations are still ongoing. Apparently, most of the people shot by the secret service have been under the radar of the police for quite a while, but they was never enough evidence to charge them. The old regime would have been bitten their time and hoped to catch them out, but this Government, with very little respect for the rule of law decided to take the law into its own hands. The secret service are a law unto themselves.

 

But there was more to come. Of late, the president has moved on to his own party members. With what seems like the presidents attempt to surround him self with only those who agree with him, he went public and campaigned for his faction for the parties coming congress election. The president urged those who supported the party to reject the other members from a different faction and vote for those he supported. Unfortunately, it all backfired on him, when his faction lost all party seats, but he was to have the last word. While it is a norm for a president to inform the Central Committee when appointing additional members, it is not a law. The president, true to his vindictive self, decided to appoint seventy seven members without the comities input arguing that he was not required to. That meant that the committee which had rightfully won the election, could be brushed aside in the decision making of the party. The President even instructed a law firm, apparently close to his family to justify his actions. When the secretary of the Central Committee stood up to disapprove and call the President’s action unlawful, he was suspended for lacking discipline and undermining the president’s authority.

 

The president has taken a decision to instill discipline in people, and have them dancing to his tune against all odds, meaning that things can only get worse. Ironically though, it has been proven that people in fact always react to inspiration, rather than intimidation and fear, and leaders like Barak Obama, used this mode to inspire people to vote for them, defying all odds that they couldn’t be a black president in The United States. Only if our President could take a leaf from Mr Obama. Dignity would have automatically being instilled in people. With Dignity people usually aim to Develop themselves. That becomes the number one priority in their lives. Unfortunately, the president is going about it all wrong, and since he has surrounded himself with syncopates for advisors, the situation is only to get worse.

 

For a country long known as the shining example of Africa, it’s so long democracy and welcome Dictatorship. We are in Africa after all.

It seems, since the coming of our current president Lieutenant General Ian Khama, a former army General, through the automatic succession, our country Botswana has gone steep down the hill in its democratic standings. The automatic system means that people are chosen a leader for, which means that who ever becomes the president is someone else’s choice. The system, originally, had not had any problems, since the chosen people had respect the rule of law, democracy and freedom of speech. That though had come to an end since the rising to power of our former army chief. When the current President ascended to the highest office, he introduced, the now infamous four D’s, being, DEMOCRACY, DEVELOPMENT, DIGNITY AND DISCIPLINE. Important to note that since then, only one D had been put into effect, being discipline, with Democracy being shoved off the back. According to the president, you cant have Democracy without Discipline, forcing him to forget all together about Democracy for the time being.

 

Since our President rose to power, all Government decisions had being based around his views, with anyone with a different view risking the wrath of power. Since his ascend to power, legislators have been recalled from their seats, made to apologize for their opinions, being removed from their constituencies’ standings to make way for his favorite people, and suspended from the party. The president of course, says all is in the name of discipline. Since he rose to the presidency, laws have been passed without much input from the legislators. The president through his cronies he has appointed as ministers have argued that, they are being effective and not wasting the publics’ money and time by discussing bills forever, as if the public had ever complained. In fact, the public argues that for laws to be of high quality and well informed they need to be discusses at length, with different views taken on board before that are finally ironed and passed  as law. In an unprecedented move, six laws had been passed in a matter of twenty minutes, something that had never happened in the history of Botswana. Legislators from the ruling party are given instructions on how to vote, and all bills coming from the ruling party, or better yet, imposed by the president through his cronies are given thumps up, while any law coming from the opposition, regardless of how good that bill is, is rejected, the ruling party definitely using its majority to suppress any voices of reason. Legislators are given only twenty minutes to contribute to a bill, and before they even get started, their time is already up.

 

Ironically, the laws passed in the Parliament had been shocking to say the least. First, the President announce through a village gathering, that since he hated beer so much, he was going to tax it at a rate of seventy percent, and that when people continued drinking, he was going to increase that to one hundred percent. Was it up to him he said, would ban beer all together. Why cant people just drink soft drinks, he argued. He said beer was the number one contributor of indiscipline. Maybe true to some effect, but certainly there are better alternatives. Through the intervention of the elders, the percentage was reduced to thirty percent instead, but that didn’t help the countries brewers as their distributors cancelled distributing to them deciding to distribute themselves. This has meant that beer produced in Botswana is more expensive than beer distributed from outside, meaning that people have just changed the beer they take, not reduced their drinking at all. Meanwhile, the countries brewer has had to retrench.

 

As if that was not shocking enough, another law passed again, without any input from the legislators. This one was an amendment to the road traffic fines, which suddenly shot though the roof. Driving without a seat belt on is five thousand, approximately USD1000, driving without a license, P10 000.00, or USD4000.00. All this would mean to be able to pay a fines, one may need to apply for a personal loan. All fines carry a prison term in failure to pay and the car is always impounded until payment is made. While the public was still shocked at this diabolic law, it came time for the traditional watch dogs to get their piece of the cake. A bill to regulate the journalist, called Media Bill was proposed. The bill, thanks to the journalist having more power than the ordinary people have caused a lot of noise, with the Media refusing it with all its conditions. But that haven’t stopped the Government from passing it anyway. Should Journalist publish anything “unethical” they are liable to pay a fine, go to jail should they fail, or both. Louder cries of Democracy being stumbled across have done nothing to damper the President mission of instilling discipline and all fell in death ears.

 

The President again, upon coming to power has introduced a secret service, which was questioned by many people. The president assured the public that it was to guard against terrorists or anyone who might be a threat to national security. Since their inception, more than seventeen people have been killed under mysterious circumstances. The vice President has once come out to say killing one or two people by the state should be no cause for alarm and that it wouldn’t be the last time it happened. The murders have been under investigation for a long time and no one has been questioned by the police. All the people killed have died in the Secret Officers hands, with one suspect shot in front of his father. Apparently, he had taken off when the police approached him, prompting them to shoot. Upon inspection, they found out it was no one they knew, and all they could do was to apologize to the father, arguing that he shouldn’t have ran if he had nothing to fear. One was shot under a hail of bullets, and even now all the investigations are still ongoing. Apparently, most of the people shot by the secret service have been under the radar of the police for quite a while, but they was never enough evidence to charge them. The old regime would have been bitten their time and hoped to catch them out, but this Government, with very little respect for the rule of law decided to take the law into its own hands. The secret service are a law unto themselves.

 

But there was more to come. Of late, the president has moved on to his own party members. With what seems like the presidents attempt to surround him self with only those who agree with him, he went public and campaigned for his faction for the parties coming congress election. The president urged those who supported the party to reject the other members from a different faction and vote for those he supported. Unfortunately, it all backfired on him, when his faction lost all party seats, but he was to have the last word. While it is a norm for a president to inform the Central Committee when appointing additional members, it is not a law. The president, true to his vindictive self, decided to appoint seventy seven members without the comities input arguing that he was not required to. That meant that the committee which had rightfully won the election, could be brushed aside in the decision making of the party. The President even instructed a law firm, apparently close to his family to justify his actions. When the secretary of the Central Committee stood up to disapprove and call the President’s action unlawful, he was suspended for lacking discipline and undermining the president’s authority.

 

The president has taken a decision to instill discipline in people, and have them dancing to his tune against all odds, meaning that things can only get worse. Ironically though, it has been proven that people in fact always react to inspiration, rather than intimidation and fear, and leaders like Barak Obama, used this mode to inspire people to vote for them, defying all odds that they couldn’t be a black president in The United States. Only if our President could take a leaf from Mr Obama. Dignity would have automatically being instilled in people. With Dignity people usually aim to Develop themselves. That becomes the number one priority in their lives. Unfortunately, the president is going about it all wrong, and since he has surrounded himself with syncopates for advisors, the situation is only to get worse.

 

For a country long known as the shining example of Africa, it’s so long democracy and welcome Dictatorship. We are in Africa after all.

It seems, since the coming of our current president Lieutenant General Ian Khama, a former army General, through the automatic succession, our country Botswana has gone steep down the hill in its democratic standings. The automatic system means that people are chosen a leader for, which means that who ever becomes the president is someone else’s choice. The system, originally, had not had any problems, since the chosen people had respect the rule of law, democracy and freedom of speech. That though had come to an end since the rising to power of our former army chief. When the current President ascended to the highest office, he introduced, the now infamous four D’s, being, DEMOCRACY, DEVELOPMENT, DIGNITY AND DISCIPLINE. Important to note that since then, only one D had been put into effect, being discipline, with Democracy being shoved off the back. According to the president, you cant have Democracy without Discipline, forcing him to forget all together about Democracy for the time being.

 

Since our President rose to power, all Government decisions had being based around his views, with anyone with a different view risking the wrath of power. Since his ascend to power, legislators have been recalled from their seats, made to apologize for their opinions, being removed from their constituencies’ standings to make way for his favorite people, and suspended from the party. The president of course, says all is in the name of discipline. Since he rose to the presidency, laws have been passed without much input from the legislators. The president through his cronies he has appointed as ministers have argued that, they are being effective and not wasting the publics’ money and time by discussing bills forever, as if the public had ever complained. In fact, the public argues that for laws to be of high quality and well informed they need to be discusses at length, with different views taken on board before that are finally ironed and passed  as law. In an unprecedented move, six laws had been passed in a matter of twenty minutes, something that had never happened in the history of Botswana. Legislators from the ruling party are given instructions on how to vote, and all bills coming from the ruling party, or better yet, imposed by the president through his cronies are given thumps up, while any law coming from the opposition, regardless of how good that bill is, is rejected, the ruling party definitely using its majority to suppress any voices of reason. Legislators are given only twenty minutes to contribute to a bill, and before they even get started, their time is already up.

 

Ironically, the laws passed in the Parliament had been shocking to say the least. First, the President announce through a village gathering, that since he hated beer so much, he was going to tax it at a rate of seventy percent, and that when people continued drinking, he was going to increase that to one hundred percent. Was it up to him he said, would ban beer all together. Why cant people just drink soft drinks, he argued. He said beer was the number one contributor of indiscipline. Maybe true to some effect, but certainly there are better alternatives. Through the intervention of the elders, the percentage was reduced to thirty percent instead, but that didn’t help the countries brewers as their distributors cancelled distributing to them deciding to distribute themselves. This has meant that beer produced in Botswana is more expensive than beer distributed from outside, meaning that people have just changed the beer they take, not reduced their drinking at all. Meanwhile, the countries brewer has had to retrench.

 

As if that was not shocking enough, another law passed again, without any input from the legislators. This one was an amendment to the road traffic fines, which suddenly shot though the roof. Driving without a seat belt on is five thousand, approximately USD1000, driving without a license, P10 000.00, or USD4000.00. All this would mean to be able to pay a fines, one may need to apply for a personal loan. All fines carry a prison term in failure to pay and the car is always impounded until payment is made. While the public was still shocked at this diabolic law, it came time for the traditional watch dogs to get their piece of the cake. A bill to regulate the journalist, called Media Bill was proposed. The bill, thanks to the journalist having more power than the ordinary people have caused a lot of noise, with the Media refusing it with all its conditions. But that haven’t stopped the Government from passing it anyway. Should Journalist publish anything “unethical” they are liable to pay a fine, go to jail should they fail, or both. Louder cries of Democracy being stumbled across have done nothing to damper the President mission of instilling discipline and all fell in death ears.

 

The President again, upon coming to power has introduced a secret service, which was questioned by many people. The president assured the public that it was to guard against terrorists or anyone who might be a threat to national security. Since their inception, more than seventeen people have been killed under mysterious circumstances. The vice President has once come out to say killing one or two people by the state should be no cause for alarm and that it wouldn’t be the last time it happened. The murders have been under investigation for a long time and no one has been questioned by the police. All the people killed have died in the Secret Officers hands, with one suspect shot in front of his father. Apparently, he had taken off when the police approached him, prompting them to shoot. Upon inspection, they found out it was no one they knew, and all they could do was to apologize to the father, arguing that he shouldn’t have ran if he had nothing to fear. One was shot under a hail of bullets, and even now all the investigations are still ongoing. Apparently, most of the people shot by the secret service have been under the radar of the police for quite a while, but they was never enough evidence to charge them. The old regime would have been bitten their time and hoped to catch them out, but this Government, with very little respect for the rule of law decided to take the law into its own hands. The secret service are a law unto themselves.

 

But there was more to come. Of late, the president has moved on to his own party members. With what seems like the presidents attempt to surround him self with only those who agree with him, he went public and campaigned for his faction for the parties coming congress election. The president urged those who supported the party to reject the other members from a different faction and vote for those he supported. Unfortunately, it all backfired on him, when his faction lost all party seats, but he was to have the last word. While it is a norm for a president to inform the Central Committee when appointing additional members, it is not a law. The president, true to his vindictive self, decided to appoint seventy seven members without the comities input arguing that he was not required to. That meant that the committee which had rightfully won the election, could be brushed aside in the decision making of the party. The President even instructed a law firm, apparently close to his family to justify his actions. When the secretary of the Central Committee stood up to disapprove and call the President’s action unlawful, he was suspended for lacking discipline and undermining the president’s authority.

 

The president has taken a decision to instill discipline in people, and have them dancing to his tune against all odds, meaning that things can only get worse. Ironically though, it has been proven that people in fact always react to inspiration, rather than intimidation and fear, and leaders like Barak Obama, used this mode to inspire people to vote for them, defying all odds that they couldn’t be a black president in The United States. Only if our President could take a leaf from Mr Obama. Dignity would have automatically being instilled in people. With Dignity people usually aim to Develop themselves. That becomes the number one priority in their lives. Unfortunately, the president is going about it all wrong, and since he has surrounded himself with syncopates for advisors, the situation is only to get worse.

 

For a country long known as the shining example of Africa, it’s so long democracy and welcome Dictatorship. We are in Africa after all.

It seems, since the coming of our current president Lieutenant General Ian Khama, a former army General, through the automatic succession, our country Botswana has gone steep down the hill in its democratic standings. The automatic system means that people are chosen a leader for, which means that who ever becomes the president is someone else’s choice. The system, originally, had not had any problems, since the chosen people had respect the rule of law, democracy and freedom of speech. That though had come to an end since the rising to power of our former army chief. When the current President ascended to the highest office, he introduced, the now infamous four D’s, being, DEMOCRACY, DEVELOPMENT, DIGNITY AND DISCIPLINE. Important to note that since then, only one D had been put into effect, being discipline, with Democracy being shoved off the back. According to the president, you cant have Democracy without Discipline, forcing him to forget all together about Democracy for the time being.

 

Since our President rose to power, all Government decisions had being based around his views, with anyone with a different view risking the wrath of power. Since his ascend to power, legislators have been recalled from their seats, made to apologize for their opinions, being removed from their constituencies’ standings to make way for his favorite people, and suspended from the party. The president of course, says all is in the name of discipline. Since he rose to the presidency, laws have been passed without much input from the legislators. The president through his cronies he has appointed as ministers have argued that, they are being effective and not wasting the publics’ money and time by discussing bills forever, as if the public had ever complained. In fact, the public argues that for laws to be of high quality and well informed they need to be discusses at length, with different views taken on board before that are finally ironed and passed  as law. In an unprecedented move, six laws had been passed in a matter of twenty minutes, something that had never happened in the history of Botswana. Legislators from the ruling party are given instructions on how to vote, and all bills coming from the ruling party, or better yet, imposed by the president through his cronies are given thumps up, while any law coming from the opposition, regardless of how good that bill is, is rejected, the ruling party definitely using its majority to suppress any voices of reason. Legislators are given only twenty minutes to contribute to a bill, and before they even get started, their time is already up.

 

Ironically, the laws passed in the Parliament had been shocking to say the least. First, the President announce through a village gathering, that since he hated beer so much, he was going to tax it at a rate of seventy percent, and that when people continued drinking, he was going to increase that to one hundred percent. Was it up to him he said, would ban beer all together. Why cant people just drink soft drinks, he argued. He said beer was the number one contributor of indiscipline. Maybe true to some effect, but certainly there are better alternatives. Through the intervention of the elders, the percentage was reduced to thirty percent instead, but that didn’t help the countries brewers as their distributors cancelled distributing to them deciding to distribute themselves. This has meant that beer produced in Botswana is more expensive than beer distributed from outside, meaning that people have just changed the beer they take, not reduced their drinking at all. Meanwhile, the countries brewer has had to retrench.

 

As if that was not shocking enough, another law passed again, without any input from the legislators. This one was an amendment to the road traffic fines, which suddenly shot though the roof. Driving without a seat belt on is five thousand, approximately USD1000, driving without a license, P10 000.00, or USD4000.00. All this would mean to be able to pay a fines, one may need to apply for a personal loan. All fines carry a prison term in failure to pay and the car is always impounded until payment is made. While the public was still shocked at this diabolic law, it came time for the traditional watch dogs to get their piece of the cake. A bill to regulate the journalist, called Media Bill was proposed. The bill, thanks to the journalist having more power than the ordinary people have caused a lot of noise, with the Media refusing it with all its conditions. But that haven’t stopped the Government from passing it anyway. Should Journalist publish anything “unethical” they are liable to pay a fine, go to jail should they fail, or both. Louder cries of Democracy being stumbled across have done nothing to damper the President mission of instilling discipline and all fell in death ears.

 

The President again, upon coming to power has introduced a secret service, which was questioned by many people. The president assured the public that it was to guard against terrorists or anyone who might be a threat to national security. Since their inception, more than seventeen people have been killed under mysterious circumstances. The vice President has once come out to say killing one or two people by the state should be no cause for alarm and that it wouldn’t be the last time it happened. The murders have been under investigation for a long time and no one has been questioned by the police. All the people killed have died in the Secret Officers hands, with one suspect shot in front of his father. Apparently, he had taken off when the police approached him, prompting them to shoot. Upon inspection, they found out it was no one they knew, and all they could do was to apologize to the father, arguing that he shouldn’t have ran if he had nothing to fear. One was shot under a hail of bullets, and even now all the investigations are still ongoing. Apparently, most of the people shot by the secret service have been under the radar of the police for quite a while, but they was never enough evidence to charge them. The old regime would have been bitten their time and hoped to catch them out, but this Government, with very little respect for the rule of law decided to take the law into its own hands. The secret service are a law unto themselves.

 

But there was more to come. Of late, the president has moved on to his own party members. With what seems like the presidents attempt to surround him self with only those who agree with him, he went public and campaigned for his faction for the parties coming congress election. The president urged those who supported the party to reject the other members from a different faction and vote for those he supported. Unfortunately, it all backfired on him, when his faction lost all party seats, but he was to have the last word. While it is a norm for a president to inform the Central Committee when appointing additional members, it is not a law. The president, true to his vindictive self, decided to appoint seventy seven members without the comities input arguing that he was not required to. That meant that the committee which had rightfully won the election, could be brushed aside in the decision making of the party. The President even instructed a law firm, apparently close to his family to justify his actions. When the secretary of the Central Committee stood up to disapprove and call the President’s action unlawful, he was suspended for lacking discipline and undermining the president’s authority.

 

The president has taken a decision to instill discipline in people, and have them dancing to his tune against all odds, meaning that things can only get worse. Ironically though, it has been proven that people in fact always react to inspiration, rather than intimidation and fear, and leaders like Barak Obama, used this mode to inspire people to vote for them, defying all odds that they couldn’t be a black president in The United States. Only if our President could take a leaf from Mr Obama. Dignity would have automatically being instilled in people. With Dignity people usually aim to Develop themselves. That becomes the number one priority in their lives. Unfortunately, the president is going about it all wrong, and since he has surrounded himself with syncopates for advisors, the situation is only to get worse.

 

For a country long known as the shining example of Africa, it’s so long democracy and welcome Dictatorship. We are in Africa after all.

It seems, since the coming of our current president Lieutenant General Ian Khama, a former army General, through the automatic succession, our country Botswana has gone steep down the hill in its democratic standings. The automatic system means that people are chosen a leader for, which means that who ever becomes the president is someone else’s choice. The system, originally, had not had any problems, since the chosen people had respect the rule of law, democracy and freedom of speech. That though had come to an end since the rising to power of our former army chief. When the current President ascended to the highest office, he introduced, the now infamous four D’s, being, DEMOCRACY, DEVELOPMENT, DIGNITY AND DISCIPLINE. Important to note that since then, only one D had been put into effect, being discipline, with Democracy being shoved off the back. According to the president, you cant have Democracy without Discipline, forcing him to forget all together about Democracy for the time being.

 

Since our President rose to power, all Government decisions had being based around his views, with anyone with a different view risking the wrath of power. Since his ascend to power, legislators have been recalled from their seats, made to apologize for their opinions, being removed from their constituencies’ standings to make way for his favorite people, and suspended from the party. The president of course, says all is in the name of discipline. Since he rose to the presidency, laws have been passed without much input from the legislators. The president through his cronies he has appointed as ministers have argued that, they are being effective and not wasting the publics’ money and time by discussing bills forever, as if the public had ever complained. In fact, the public argues that for laws to be of high quality and well informed they need to be discusses at length, with different views taken on board before that are finally ironed and passed  as law. In an unprecedented move, six laws had been passed in a matter of twenty minutes, something that had never happened in the history of Botswana. Legislators from the ruling party are given instructions on how to vote, and all bills coming from the ruling party, or better yet, imposed by the president through his cronies are given thumps up, while any law coming from the opposition, regardless of how good that bill is, is rejected, the ruling party definitely using its majority to suppress any voices of reason. Legislators are given only twenty minutes to contribute to a bill, and before they even get started, their time is already up.

 

Ironically, the laws passed in the Parliament had been shocking to say the least. First, the President announce through a village gathering, that since he hated beer so much, he was going to tax it at a rate of seventy percent, and that when people continued drinking, he was going to increase that to one hundred percent. Was it up to him he said, would ban beer all together. Why cant people just drink soft drinks, he argued. He said beer was the number one contributor of indiscipline. Maybe true to some effect, but certainly there are better alternatives. Through the intervention of the elders, the percentage was reduced to thirty percent instead, but that didn’t help the countries brewers as their distributors cancelled distributing to them deciding to distribute themselves. This has meant that beer produced in Botswana is more expensive than beer distributed from outside, meaning that people have just changed the beer they take, not reduced their drinking at all. Meanwhile, the countries brewer has had to retrench.

 

As if that was not shocking enough, another law passed again, without any input from the legislators. This one was an amendment to the road traffic fines, which suddenly shot though the roof. Driving without a seat belt on is five thousand, approximately USD1000, driving without a license, P10 000.00, or USD4000.00. All this would mean to be able to pay a fines, one may need to apply for a personal loan. All fines carry a prison term in failure to pay and the car is always impounded until payment is made. While the public was still shocked at this diabolic law, it came time for the traditional watch dogs to get their piece of the cake. A bill to regulate the journalist, called Media Bill was proposed. The bill, thanks to the journalist having more power than the ordinary people have caused a lot of noise, with the Media refusing it with all its conditions. But that haven’t stopped the Government from passing it anyway. Should Journalist publish anything “unethical” they are liable to pay a fine, go to jail should they fail, or both. Louder cries of Democracy being stumbled across have done nothing to damper the President mission of instilling discipline and all fell in death ears.

 

The President again, upon coming to power has introduced a secret service, which was questioned by many people. The president assured the public that it was to guard against terrorists or anyone who might be a threat to national security. Since their inception, more than seventeen people have been killed under mysterious circumstances. The vice President has once come out to say killing one or two people by the state should be no cause for alarm and that it wouldn’t be the last time it happened. The murders have been under investigation for a long time and no one has been questioned by the police. All the people killed have died in the Secret Officers hands, with one suspect shot in front of his father. Apparently, he had taken off when the police approached him, prompting them to shoot. Upon inspection, they found out it was no one they knew, and all they could do was to apologize to the father, arguing that he shouldn’t have ran if he had nothing to fear. One was shot under a hail of bullets, and even now all the investigations are still ongoing. Apparently, most of the people shot by the secret service have been under the radar of the police for quite a while, but they was never enough evidence to charge them. The old regime would have been bitten their time and hoped to catch them out, but this Government, with very little respect for the rule of law decided to take the law into its own hands. The secret service are a law unto themselves.

 

But there was more to come. Of late, the president has moved on to his own party members. With what seems like the presidents attempt to surround him self with only those who agree with him, he went public and campaigned for his faction for the parties coming congress election. The president urged those who supported the party to reject the other members from a different faction and vote for those he supported. Unfortunately, it all backfired on him, when his faction lost all party seats, but he was to have the last word. While it is a norm for a president to inform the Central Committee when appointing additional members, it is not a law. The president, true to his vindictive self, decided to appoint seventy seven members without the comities input arguing that he was not required to. That meant that the committee which had rightfully won the election, could be brushed aside in the decision making of the party. The President even instructed a law firm, apparently close to his family to justify his actions. When the secretary of the Central Committee stood up to disapprove and call the President’s action unlawful, he was suspended for lacking discipline and undermining the president’s authority.

 

The president has taken a decision to instill discipline in people, and have them dancing to his tune against all odds, meaning that things can only get worse. Ironically though, it has been proven that people in fact always react to inspiration, rather than intimidation and fear, and leaders like Barak Obama, used this mode to inspire people to vote for them, defying all odds that they couldn’t be a black president in The United States. Only if our President could take a leaf from Mr Obama. Dignity would have automatically being instilled in people. With Dignity people usually aim to Develop themselves. That becomes the number one priority in their lives. Unfortunately, the president is going about it all wrong, and since he has surrounded himself with syncopates for advisors, the situation is only to get worse.

 

For a country long known as the shining example of Africa, it’s so long democracy and welcome Dictatorship. We are in Africa after all.

It seems, since the coming of our current president Lieutenant General Ian Khama, a former army General, through the automatic succession, our country Botswana has gone steep down the hill in its democratic standings. The automatic system means that people are chosen a leader for, which means that who ever becomes the president is someone else’s choice. The system, originally, had not had any problems, since the chosen people had respect the rule of law, democracy and freedom of speech. That though had come to an end since the rising to power of our former army chief. When the current President ascended to the highest office, he introduced, the now infamous four D’s, being, DEMOCRACY, DEVELOPMENT, DIGNITY AND DISCIPLINE. Important to note that since then, only one D had been put into effect, being discipline, with Democracy being shoved off the back. According to the president, you cant have Democracy without Discipline, forcing him to forget all together about Democracy for the time being.

 

Since our President rose to power, all Government decisions had being based around his views, with anyone with a different view risking the wrath of power. Since his ascend to power, legislators have been recalled from their seats, made to apologize for their opinions, being removed from their constituencies’ standings to make way for his favorite people, and suspended from the party. The president of course, says all is in the name of discipline. Since he rose to the presidency, laws have been passed without much input from the legislators. The president through his cronies he has appointed as ministers have argued that, they are being effective and not wasting the publics’ money and time by discussing bills forever, as if the public had ever complained. In fact, the public argues that for laws to be of high quality and well informed they need to be discusses at length, with different views taken on board before that are finally ironed and passed  as law. In an unprecedented move, six laws had been passed in a matter of twenty minutes, something that had never happened in the history of Botswana. Legislators from the ruling party are given instructions on how to vote, and all bills coming from the ruling party, or better yet, imposed by the president through his cronies are given thumps up, while any law coming from the opposition, regardless of how good that bill is, is rejected, the ruling party definitely using its majority to suppress any voices of reason. Legislators are given only twenty minutes to contribute to a bill, and before they even get started, their time is already up.

 

Ironically, the laws passed in the Parliament had been shocking to say the least. First, the President announce through a village gathering, that since he hated beer so much, he was going to tax it at a rate of seventy percent, and that when people continued drinking, he was going to increase that to one hundred percent. Was it up to him he said, would ban beer all together. Why cant people just drink soft drinks, he argued. He said beer was the number one contributor of indiscipline. Maybe true to some effect, but certainly there are better alternatives. Through the intervention of the elders, the percentage was reduced to thirty percent instead, but that didn’t help the countries brewers as their distributors cancelled distributing to them deciding to distribute themselves. This has meant that beer produced in Botswana is more expensive than beer distributed from outside, meaning that people have just changed the beer they take, not reduced their drinking at all. Meanwhile, the countries brewer has had to retrench.

 

As if that was not shocking enough, another law passed again, without any input from the legislators. This one was an amendment to the road traffic fines, which suddenly shot though the roof. Driving without a seat belt on is five thousand, approximately USD1000, driving without a license, P10 000.00, or USD4000.00. All this would mean to be able to pay a fines, one may need to apply for a personal loan. All fines carry a prison term in failure to pay and the car is always impounded until payment is made. While the public was still shocked at this diabolic law, it came time for the traditional watch dogs to get their piece of the cake. A bill to regulate the journalist, called Media Bill was proposed. The bill, thanks to the journalist having more power than the ordinary people have caused a lot of noise, with the Media refusing it with all its conditions. But that haven’t stopped the Government from passing it anyway. Should Journalist publish anything “unethical” they are liable to pay a fine, go to jail should they fail, or both. Louder cries of Democracy being stumbled across have done nothing to damper the President mission of instilling discipline and all fell in death ears.

 

The President again, upon coming to power has introduced a secret service, which was questioned by many people. The president assured the public that it was to guard against terrorists or anyone who might be a threat to national security. Since their inception, more than seventeen people have been killed under mysterious circumstances. The vice President has once come out to say killing one or two people by the state should be no cause for alarm and that it wouldn’t be the last time it happened. The murders have been under investigation for a long time and no one has been questioned by the police. All the people killed have died in the Secret Officers hands, with one suspect shot in front of his father. Apparently, he had taken off when the police approached him, prompting them to shoot. Upon inspection, they found out it was no one they knew, and all they could do was to apologize to the father, arguing that he shouldn’t have ran if he had nothing to fear. One was shot under a hail of bullets, and even now all the investigations are still ongoing. Apparently, most of the people shot by the secret service have been under the radar of the police for quite a while, but they was never enough evidence to charge them. The old regime would have been bitten their time and hoped to catch them out, but this Government, with very little respect for the rule of law decided to take the law into its own hands. The secret service are a law unto themselves.

 

But there was more to come. Of late, the president has moved on to his own party members. With what seems like the presidents attempt to surround him self with only those who agree with him, he went public and campaigned for his faction for the parties coming congress election. The president urged those who supported the party to reject the other members from a different faction and vote for those he supported. Unfortunately, it all backfired on him, when his faction lost all party seats, but he was to have the last word. While it is a norm for a president to inform the Central Committee when appointing additional members, it is not a law. The president, true to his vindictive self, decided to appoint seventy seven members without the comities input arguing that he was not required to. That meant that the committee which had rightfully won the election, could be brushed aside in the decision making of the party. The President even instructed a law firm, apparently close to his family to justify his actions. When the secretary of the Central Committee stood up to disapprove and call the President’s action unlawful, he was suspended for lacking discipline and undermining the president’s authority.

 

The president has taken a decision to instill discipline in people, and have them dancing to his tune against all odds, meaning that things can only get worse. Ironically though, it has been proven that people in fact always react to inspiration, rather than intimidation and fear, and leaders like Barak Obama, used this mode to inspire people to vote for them, defying all odds that they couldn’t be a black president in The United States. Only if our President could take a leaf from Mr Obama. Dignity would have automatically being instilled in people. With Dignity people usually aim to Develop themselves. That becomes the number one priority in their lives. Unfortunately, the president is going about it all wrong, and since he has surrounded himself with syncopates for advisors, the situation is only to get worse.

 

For a country long known as the shining example of Africa, it’s so long democracy and welcome Dictatorship. We are in Africa after all.

It seems, since the coming of our current president Lieutenant General Ian Khama, a former army General, through the automatic succession, our country Botswana has gone steep down the hill in its democratic standings. The automatic system means that people are chosen a leader for, which means that who ever becomes the president is someone else’s choice. The system, originally, had not had any problems, since the chosen people had respect the rule of law, democracy and freedom of speech. That though had come to an end since the rising to power of our former army chief. When the current President ascended to the highest office, he introduced, the now infamous four D’s, being, DEMOCRACY, DEVELOPMENT, DIGNITY AND DISCIPLINE. Important to note that since then, only one D had been put into effect, being discipline, with Democracy being shoved off the back. According to the president, you cant have Democracy without Discipline, forcing him to forget all together about Democracy for the time being.

 

Since our President rose to power, all Government decisions had being based around his views, with anyone with a different view risking the wrath of power. Since his ascend to power, legislators have been recalled from their seats, made to apologize for their opinions, being removed from their constituencies’ standings to make way for his favorite people, and suspended from the party. The president of course, says all is in the name of discipline. Since he rose to the presidency, laws have been passed without much input from the legislators. The president through his cronies he has appointed as ministers have argued that, they are being effective and not wasting the publics’ money and time by discussing bills forever, as if the public had ever complained. In fact, the public argues that for laws to be of high quality and well informed they need to be discusses at length, with different views taken on board before that are finally ironed and passed  as law. In an unprecedented move, six laws had been passed in a matter of twenty minutes, something that had never happened in the history of Botswana. Legislators from the ruling party are given instructions on how to vote, and all bills coming from the ruling party, or better yet, imposed by the president through his cronies are given thumps up, while any law coming from the opposition, regardless of how good that bill is, is rejected, the ruling party definitely using its majority to suppress any voices of reason. Legislators are given only twenty minutes to contribute to a bill, and before they even get started, their time is already up.

 

Ironically, the laws passed in the Parliament had been shocking to say the least. First, the President announce through a village gathering, that since he hated beer so much, he was going to tax it at a rate of seventy percent, and that when people continued drinking, he was going to increase that to one hundred percent. Was it up to him he said, would ban beer all together. Why cant people just drink soft drinks, he argued. He said beer was the number one contributor of indiscipline. Maybe true to some effect, but certainly there are better alternatives. Through the intervention of the elders, the percentage was reduced to thirty percent instead, but that didn’t help the countries brewers as their distributors cancelled distributing to them deciding to distribute themselves. This has meant that beer produced in Botswana is more expensive than beer distributed from outside, meaning that people have just changed the beer they take, not reduced their drinking at all. Meanwhile, the countries brewer has had to retrench.

 

As if that was not shocking enough, another law passed again, without any input from the legislators. This one was an amendment to the road traffic fines, which suddenly shot though the roof. Driving without a seat belt on is five thousand, approximately USD1000, driving without a license, P10 000.00, or USD4000.00. All this would mean to be able to pay a fines, one may need to apply for a personal loan. All fines carry a prison term in failure to pay and the car is always impounded until payment is made. While the public was still shocked at this diabolic law, it came time for the traditional watch dogs to get their piece of the cake. A bill to regulate the journalist, called Media Bill was proposed. The bill, thanks to the journalist having more power than the ordinary people have caused a lot of noise, with the Media refusing it with all its conditions. But that haven’t stopped the Government from passing it anyway. Should Journalist publish anything “unethical” they are liable to pay a fine, go to jail should they fail, or both. Louder cries of Democracy being stumbled across have done nothing to damper the President mission of instilling discipline and all fell in death ears.

 

The President again, upon coming to power has introduced a secret service, which was questioned by many people. The president assured the public that it was to guard against terrorists or anyone who might be a threat to national security. Since their inception, more than seventeen people have been killed under mysterious circumstances. The vice President has once come out to say killing one or two people by the state should be no cause for alarm and that it wouldn’t be the last time it happened. The murders have been under investigation for a long time and no one has been questioned by the police. All the people killed have died in the Secret Officers hands, with one suspect shot in front of his father. Apparently, he had taken off when the police approached him, prompting them to shoot. Upon inspection, they found out it was no one they knew, and all they could do was to apologize to the father, arguing that he shouldn’t have ran if he had nothing to fear. One was shot under a hail of bullets, and even now all the investigations are still ongoing. Apparently, most of the people shot by the secret service have been under the radar of the police for quite a while, but they was never enough evidence to charge them. The old regime would have been bitten their time and hoped to catch them out, but this Government, with very little respect for the rule of law decided to take the law into its own hands. The secret service are a law unto themselves.

 

But there was more to come. Of late, the president has moved on to his own party members. With what seems like the presidents attempt to surround him self with only those who agree with him, he went public and campaigned for his faction for the parties coming congress election. The president urged those who supported the party to reject the other members from a different faction and vote for those he supported. Unfortunately, it all backfired on him, when his faction lost all party seats, but he was to have the last word. While it is a norm for a president to inform the Central Committee when appointing additional members, it is not a law. The president, true to his vindictive self, decided to appoint seventy seven members without the comities input arguing that he was not required to. That meant that the committee which had rightfully won the election, could be brushed aside in the decision making of the party. The President even instructed a law firm, apparently close to his family to justify his actions. When the secretary of the Central Committee stood up to disapprove and call the President’s action unlawful, he was suspended for lacking discipline and undermining the president’s authority.

 

The president has taken a decision to instill discipline in people, and have them dancing to his tune against all odds, meaning that things can only get worse. Ironically though, it has been proven that people in fact always react to inspiration, rather than intimidation and fear, and leaders like Barak Obama, used this mode to inspire people to vote for them, defying all odds that they couldn’t be a black president in The United States. Only if our President could take a leaf from Mr Obama. Dignity would have automatically being instilled in people. With Dignity people usually aim to Develop themselves. That becomes the number one priority in their lives. Unfortunately, the president is going about it all wrong, and since he has surrounded himself with syncopates for advisors, the situation is only to get worse.

 

For a country long known as the shining example of Africa, it’s so long democracy and welcome Dictatorship. We are in Africa after all.