Why should voters roll be kept secret ?

The WeekendPost newspaper of 27 September 2014 carries a report headlined "IEC on high alert over rigging claims". The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) spokesperson, Mr. Osupile Maroba is reported to have "assured to [sic] the public at large that no one besides IEC has access to voters roll and that ...".

I am not a lawyer, therefore for all I know there may be some law, or even the constitution itself, which empowers the IEC to hide the voters roll from the voters themselves. But would such a law, if indeed it exists, make sense ?

When I registered to vote, all the information that I was asked to supply is on my National Identity document (Omang) that the law requires me to have on my person EVERYWHERE I AM IN THE COUNTRY. To this information the recording clerk added my postal address and the name of the Polling station where I was registering.

All the above information about me is public information, the release of which does not endanger public security in any way whatsoever. The information is ALL that my individual record on the voters roll should contain, and the voters roll is just a collection of many similar individual records. Why then should the voters roll be kept a secret ?

In my view transparency in the voting process would be best served by the IEC publishing the voters roll online and (transparently) editing it until the cut-off date just before the elections. If by so doing, the IEC would be contravening any law, then I challenge all political formations to tell us, the voters, what changes they will make to such a law in the event that they win the 2014 general elections.

Our Nijel Amos

Nijel Amos is a highly talented young man. If ever there was a Botswanan about whom one could write that the sky is the limit, Nijel Amos is that guy. His performance at the last Olympics 800 meters race when he came second to David Rudisha was sterling.

I would have hoped therefore that all his subsequent performances, including the one where he beat Rudisha would be meticulously srutinised to determine whether or not his performance is improving AGAINST THE CLOCK. Unfortunately, all newspapers just sing his praises, as if his target was to beat Rudisha, regardless of whether Rudisha was limping or whatever. We are not even told whether by beating Rudisha, Nijel had actually bettered his own Olympic performance! Granted, Nijel is a very delicate young man. However, he is a sportsman, and the best we have at middle distance. We must not encourage him to aim at beating so-and-so, at the expense of beating the clock!

The quality of sports reporting really needs to improve in this country.  

Youth beware! Burnt election card is ceded vote!

Today's Echo newspaper carries a story of one Poloko Pitwane who, for whatever reason, was rejected by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) when he attempted to register as an Independent candidate for the forthcoming 2014 General Elections. Mr. Pitwane is a politicized young man, therefore there can be no doubt that his voice is representative of a good section of the youth. The newspaper alleges that Mr. Pitwane has indicated that his supporters may burn their voter registration cards in protest at his barring by the IEC.

While I strongly sympathize with Mr. Pitwane, I am aware, as many people are, that "burning a voter registration card" is not equivalent to "burning a vote".  A voter registration card can be reprinted, and can be used by an impostor to vote! What this means is that burning a voter registration card is actually equivalent to GIVING A FREE VOTE TO WHOEVER PRINTS THE VOTER REGISTRATION CARDS. Once the registrations have been done, duplicates for any lost or "burnt" cards can be produced in a matter of minutes!

The voter will be shocked to learn, after the vote has passed, that he/she actually voted, despite having "burnt" his/her card! So, don't burn or surrender your voter registration cards; instead mark all candidates on the ballot, and thus SPOIL your vote. That way, your vote will actually be recorded and counted as a protest vote.

Ebola and football

A few days ago I was sitting in a bus, and so I had occassion to listen to Radio Botswana. The topic of discussion was whether or not Botswana should, in the near future, host some football team as part of the confederation of African football (CAF) fixtures. The visiting team is from a country that neighbours the Ebola stricken countries. I was shocked, to say the least.

My shock arose out of the realisation that CAF may not have issued advisories suspending CAF games until the ebola epidemic has been eliminated from the continent. If indeed CAF has not done that yet, then the world should pressure CAF to do so straight away. Even if Botswana was already in the proven infection area, no games between it and the visiting country's team should have been scheduled to go ahead. In my view CAF should have issued a lockdown on all CAF games. After all schools are being shut to avoid the spread of ebola.

The seriousness of ebola is evident in its name. I believe the name is derived from the Kalanga "i-bulaya", meaning "the killer". So, if the disease was identified by the Anunnaki or their immediate descendants what measures can possibly be considered too stringent to try and contain the current outbreak? I certainly would not count cancellation of all CAF games among such measures.

Our country in the clutches of the Lizards!

We, Kalangas call the speakers of Coptic/Suthu/Tswana languages Ba-Rwa, a mis-spelling of Ba-Ra (Ra's people). The dimunitive (to show contempt) is "Badzwana". As late as 1966, the British were content to name our country after Ra's people - Botswana (land of Badzwana).

We vehemently resisted the British "ceding" of our country to Ra's people, without success. But this does not change the fact that Ra's people (Batswana) are representative of a tribe, and not a "Nation" in our country. So is their language, Se-Tswana.

Only the Kalanga language is truly representative of the "Nation" that is erroneously called "Botswana" today. This is because all the tribes of this nation, including Badzwana, have been shown, by this very blogger, to have been at one time or another, Kalanga speakers.
As a Kalanga speaker I make no apologies for demanding that Kalanga language assumes at the very least,  the same status accorded to Se-Tswana language today. It was wrong to allow a tribal language, Se-tswana to claim national language status in the first place.

I call upon all other Kalangas who speak the different tribal languages in our nation - Shiyeyi, Shimbukushu, iSindebele, IsiZulu, SeNaro, ShiKalahari, TjeKuhane (Subiya), Tjililima, all the Tjikhwa languages and dialects, SeTswana etc. to UNITE around our truly national language, Kalanga and adopt it as our uniting language, just as it used to be when the gods walked the Earth.

What happened to Southern African slaves ?

Portugal had colonies in Southern Africa - Mozambique; Angola. Many slaves were collected from present day Botswana, Zimbabwe, and possibly even from South Africa.

Ancient Mwene Matapa engaged the Portuguese in wars and slave trade. Yet during this World Cup in Brazil every report linking Brazil with Africa seems to suggest that ONLY West African slaves ended up in Brazil. How could this be ? I find it hard to believe that Southern African slaves did not end up in Brazil.

Bakololo, or Bakulolo ?

It's not often that Setswana language shows a good retention of an ancient Kalanga word. The Bakololo of Sebetwane were Bafokeng, as we all know. Now, the word Bakololo does not mean anything in Setswana. In morden Kalanga it means "sons" or "defenders". The defenders sense of the word derives from the "bravery" of Sebetwane's soldiers.

On closer examination, the Setswana word for "warm" is "mololo". This suggests that there used to be a Kalanga phrase/sentence "ku lolo", meaning "it's warm". "Ku lolo!" would have been the call made by the Anunnaki for someone to start fanning them. This would be the opposite of "ku totho" meaning "it's cold". The correct name for Bakololo therefore must have been "Ba-kulolo".


To learn more about the lizards (zwibululu thungulu dza bidwa) the reader is referred to comments on David Icke's webside - davidicke.com.  These must be the same lizards that drove the Anunnaki from Mapungubwe, as depicted on the Zimbabwe soapstone birds.