How to defeat EVM

There is one strategy which can render the proposed use of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) at the next general election in 2019 ineffective, or even impossible. The strategy involves denying the EVM a database. That database is the voters' roll. If voters refuse to register for the elections, there will be no voters' roll to program into the EVM.

To counter such an eventuality, the EVM scammers are feverishly scrounging around for other sources of the voters' roll. They have now turned to banks to force customers to "renew" their accounts on the pretext of compliance with International anti-money laundering standards. What gives the game away is the banks' demand for a letter/affidavit from the customer's chief (kgosi) stating that the customer is a bona fide member of the chief's subjects, resident at such and such a location. The banks will not accept the national "Omang" identification as proof that the customer is a bona fide subject of some chief in Botswana, and yet to obtain the "Omang", one had to produce such a letter in the first place. So why is the Omang ID not sufficient for "renewal" of the account?

The answer is the EVM voters' roll. The EVM scammers among whom we count the "IEC" are setting up emergency sources of the voter's roll, in case the population refuses to register for the 2019 elections. They foresee a real possibility that the EVMs will be denied a voter's roll, so they are making contigency plans to counter that right away.

Our National Anthem expresses national surrender!

The Earth which we as a species inhabit, is not a gift from God. Rather, it is we as a species that are a gift to the Earth from God. The “country” that is known as “Botswana” is not a gift from God. It is a piece of Earth that for thousands of years, we have successfully defended against marauding rhinoceroses, lions, elephants, hyenas and (lately) from slave-gathering Europeans.
What is undoubtedly a gift from God is our democracy. You see, our democracy is a product of our rationality as human beings, and that rationality comes from God. We know that to avoid self-annihilation we have to tamper our natural individual competitiveness with submission to the rule of the majority. And that rule of the majority can only be established through free, fair and credible elections. Our democracy is not a gift from the ruling party (BDP), nor is it a gift from Parliament. Our democracy is not guaranteed by the constitution. It is the constitution that has to be anchored on our democratic ideals. In short, our democracy is inviolable. Take it away and we will go to war! That is what God would command us to do; and that is what our national anthem should reflect.
The electronic voting machine (EVM) is a direct attack on our democracy, not because the EVM can be hacked, not because the EVM was introduced by the ruling BDP, but because the EVM is an active agent between me, a voter casting my vote, and another voter who has to count my vote and convince me that my vote is part of the minority. It is on record that many voters have expressed unhappiness with the use of non-transparent ballot boxes that we have used for the past fifty years. But the potential of these non-transparent boxes to compromise the credibility of an election outcome pales into insignificance when compared to the absolute havoc that an EVM, as an ACTIVE AGENT, can do.
So why is the BDP government insisting on the use of EVM’s in 2019? We can only guess. The EVM is the stick, while the ten million Pula “constituency” allocation is the carrot.
The BDP know, as anybody who has passed basic secondary education does, that the EVM is a computer, and that it can therefore be used to override and change the election choice of any voter. The BDP are therefore using this knowledge as a stick to whip (read recruit) voters into joining their party. Who would dare join parties that they know will be relegated to the dustbins of history by the EVM?
The P10 million “carrot” could be used to entice election candidates of other political parties to defect to them, once the elections hurdle has been passed. We know that our political system, where an elected official is answerable only to him/her self, makes it possible for a political party to lose all the 57 seats in Parliament, but end up “buying” all 57 members of Parliament (MP’s). This is especially possible if the concerned MP’s can be made to sign secret agreements before the elections. The threat of exposure of such agreements could then be used to blackmail such MP’s into “defecting” to the buying party.
There is yet another role the EVM controversy is playing to the benefit of the BDP. The nation has been demanding that ballot boxes be counted at the polling stations rather than being carried long distances to “counting centres”. The African Union Observer Mission report on the 2014 elections also made such a recommendation. The EVM controversy is now diverting the nation’s attention from that and many other demands. 
The result is not very hard to imagine. In the event that the nation “wakes up” before 2019 and refuses to vote through the EVM, Ian Khama could then declare that we revert back to the old system and use it without modification. He could even declare a state of emergency and continue hanging onto power!

The pain of Morupule B

Mmegi, “The Reporter” newspaper of Friday 02 December 2016 carries a report headlined “Why Morupule B was doomed from the start” by one Mbongeni Mguni. Mguni’s report literally made me cry. Mguni was basically summarising a World Bank report, which I haven’t read.

I now understand why the Chinese ambassador would have warned the Botswana government that the Chinese company CNEEC which won the tender was not qualified to build such a plant: – the plant design requirements were changed after the CNEEC had successfully prequalified for the initially required design. I submit that the engineer who changed these requirements was motivated by criminal malice and should be charged with economic crime. No engineer would change design specs of a billion dollars’ project without issuing NEW Prequalification documents unless criminally motivated. If the changes were made by foreign consultants, where were our own home-grown engineers? Why did they let such a disastrous alteration pass? Did the politicians overrule our engineers’ concerns?

If the politicians did overrule our citizen engineers, then the head politician i.e. the President of the Republic should accept responsibility and resign forthwith. If he is no longer in power, then the nation should be told that he carries political responsibility for one of the greatest crimes ever committed against our nation.

I hate addressing my people in Setswana language, but because my people have been forcibly converted into Setswana speakers, I have no alternative but to use Setswana for illustration.

Go tshwana le motho ana le ngwana yo ngaka e rileng a se anywe mo go mmaagwe. Gona le barui bale bararo – Radikgomo, Radipudi le Raditonki. Motsadi (wa ngwana) abo a ntsha “prequalification documents” are o batla phologolo e egamiwang, mme gotswe mashi a aka nowang ke ngwana. 
Radikgomo, Radipudi le Raditonki babo ba iteka lesego ba araba tendara. Radikgomo le Radipodi babo ba atlega. “Nkadilatlha” abo a goroga; are ngwana o tshwanetse go nwa mashi a tonki. 

Boemong ja gore motsadi a ntshe “prequalification documents” tse dintsha, abo a tswelela hela a ntsha “request for proposals document” a neela bone baba setseng ba atlegile.  “Request for proposals” yone ebe ere e batla tonki! Radipudi abo a atlega, Radikgomo a retelelwa. Radipudi ha a sena go atlega, abo a thloka ko aka rekang tonki teng, a bo a tlisa pitse.

Ke ha ba gama pitse ba neela ngwana. Ngwana abo a lwala. Motsadi a bo are “ke tlaa rekisetsa Radipudi pitse e gore a egame, anthekisetse mashi a yone, ebong mashi a tonki, ke tle ke otle ngwanake ka one”! 

Seemo sa Morupule B ke sone seo gompieno, BeShashe! 

Keep your culture, we don't need it.

I beg the indulgence of this blog's followers. My Internet bandwidth is now so heavily constricted that my blog administrators really have to bend over backwards, and "manually" enable me to post. For their help, I am eternally grateful.

There have been at least two occasions when the citizens of Botswana (Batswana) needed to feel like a united and proud nation. On both occasions Professor Thapelo Otlogetswe wrote articles that went against the grain of national sentiment. The first occasion was during preparations for the latest "Son of the Soil" festival. Professor Otlogetswe wrote a war "poem" in his column in the Telegraph newspaper. The poem praised the war gallantry of the Tswana-speaking tribes and ignored the Kalanga speaking tribes. The impression created was that the Tswana speaking tribes are more deserving of the title "Son of the Soil" than are Kalanga speaking tribes. After reading Otlogetswe's poem, I decided that even if I were anywhere near the venue of the festival, I would not attend.

The second ocassion was the recent campaign in Kigali Rwanda by Botswana's candidate, Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi, to succeed Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as African Union Commission Chairperson. All Batswana needed to "own" and embrace the candidacy of Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi. For this to happen we as Batswana needed to feel united and proud to be one nation. However, Professor Otlogetswe's article titled "Why Setswana must be made Botswana's official language" in the same Linguist Chair collumn of July 13 Telegraph newspaper, does nothing to foster such a  spirit of nationhood among our people.  He writes "...For full national unity to occur Batswana must not only be united by a flag and a national anthem, they must be united by a common language and culture..." The language and culture referred to here of course are the SeTswana language and culture.

To show how impracticable Professor Otlogetswe's recommendation/prescription is let me quote from Dr. Jeff Ramsay's collumn "Back 4D future". In the Monitor newspaper of 11 July 2016, under the title "The orphan and the ants part 15 - The howling wind of Tshosa", Jeff Ramsay writes "...The wedlock of Sechele's parents thus conformed to the Setswana ideal of cross cousin marriage - "Ntsala wa motho ke mogatse: ngwana wa rrangwana nnyale, kgomo di boele sakeng" ("A man's cousin is his wife: child of my paternal uncle marry me so that the cattle may return to the kraal")..."

Dr Ramsay's article attests to the culturally acceptable practice by the Tswana tribes, especially the royalty among them, to marry their first cousins (children of their paternal uncles). In the Kalanga culture that I am aware of there is one English word that describes that practice - incest!  As a Kalanga, I consider children of my paternal uncles to be my brothers and sisters - no different from my own mother's and father's children. Only a mad Kalanga would sleep with, or marry his/her paternal cousin.

So how does an incestuous culture become an adopted national culture? There is simply no way that that can happen. Professor Otlogetswe should just forget about forcing his language and incestuous culture on us Kalangas; end of story!

Page of horror

The "Opinion/Analysis" page in the Telegraph newspaper of July 13 is, in my opinion a piece of horror; not because of Sonny Serite's excellently written appeal for support for the Botswana candidate to the position of Chairman of African Union Commission; not because the said candidate, Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi, is facing a tough battle from other contenders; but rather because in spite of such a desperate need for national unity in our country at this time, the paper has chosen to include on the same page a most reactionary appeal by Professor Thapelo Otlogetswe, titled "Why Setswana must be made Botswana's official language".

I read through Serite's appeal before scanning the page to Otlogetswe's column. When I reached the end of Serite's article, I felt that he had "spoken" for me. Then my eyes scanned past Ma-Moitoi's picture and across to Otlogetswe's article. At this time I would rather not describe how I felt. Suffice it to say that I caught myself wondering aloud "Is this what her chairmanship of the African Union Commission will  strive to achieve for my country?".

At the end of the vote for African Union Chairman, I wonder if Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi will consider Professor Otlogetswe's article to have been a help or a hindrance.

How to abolish Tribal Territories

The inhabitants of the country Botswana were divided into tribes by the gods, but the area of said country was divided into tribal territories by the British colonizers. Therefore while it would be foolhardy to try and eliminate the tribes, no  real problem would be encountered in eliminating the tribal territories. Tribal territories should have been eliminated at attainment of independence from Britain. Unfortunately the new leadership that replaced the British had vested interests in the retention of the tribal territories (tt's) because the British had bequeathed to these new leaders, power commensurate with the size of these British-made tt's. As long as the tt's remain in place, true nationhood cannot be attained, because the power relationships among the tribes will forever remain those that best served the colonialists, and not us the inhabitants.

No boundaries existed between any of our tribes before the arrival of the colonialists. All the schisms like the difecane wars, the massive movement of armed formations from one place to another, were caused by European Imperialist conquest of our continent. The Europeans supplied one group of Africans with weapons and set such group against fellow Africans. Then they (Europeans) "intervened to make peace" by drawing a tribal territory boundary, classical divide and rule. To re-unite our tribes, we have to get rid of these tribal territories. The tensions that currently characterize relations between tribes will automatically vanish.

Botswana should be divided into provinces. The best way to divide it is by use of lines of latitude and longitude (the GRID). Such division eliminates the temptation to corruptly revert to tt boundaries. The provincial governments would then be extensions of Central government, run by politicians along the same  lines as district councils are today.

Tribes will be strewn across several, not necessarily adjacent provinces. There is nothing new in this: Bakaa, Bakhurutshe, Bakhwa and Bakwena are so strewn today, the only difference being that Bakwena of Molepolole have a tribal territory while those of Marobela and of Kalakamati have none. Tribal administrations, headed by tribal chiefs will be entirely the responsibility of the concerned tribesmen. The tribe will pay their chief and office support staff (if any) to facilitate cultural events and other tribal functions that the tribe may wish to retain.

The bottom line is that no tribe should exclusively control any territory of our republic. The territory of our republic should belong equally to all our people, irrespective of tribal identity! This concludes my contribution on the topic of Tribal territories.  

So, I'm lucky to be alive?

This week's papers, including The Voice carry a story of how a family from Jackalas 1 village had a close shave with death at the hands of Police manning a road block. I had an almost identical experience last week.

I was joining the A1 motorway from a side road, on my way from home to town. As I approached the junction, I noticed a police road block about forty meters from the junction. I therefore was very careful to come to a complete halt at the STOP sign. Then I joined the motorway. Normally police do not stop traffic coming from that side road, but rather concentrate on the motorway traffic itself.

On this occassion, there were two cops controlling the traffic just as in the Jackalas 1 incident. The first cop, a constable was in the middle of the road, while the second,  a much senior cop was about thirty meters behind the constable, and on the left of our traffic stream. The constable therefore could not see what hand signals/commands the senior cop was giving, but the senior cop had full view of what commands the constable was giving to traffic.

As I approached the constable, he waved me to pass on. But the senior cop behind him SIMULTANEOUSLY lifted his hand in a "stop" signal. Then he (senior cop) lowered his hand/arm while the constable was still waving me to pass. Something about the way the senior cop lowered his hand/arm didn't seem right. He lowered his hand in an arc, and not straight down. I decided to err on the side of caution. I deliberately disobeyed the constable's command to pass on. I stopped at the constable as he kept waving me on. He looked confused; obviously he hadn't seen what command  the senior cop behind him  had issued.

When he recovered, the constable made some idle remark  and waved me on. I drove away and never thought anything of the incident until I read the papers and realized that by stopping against the constables's explicit orders to drive past without stopping, I may have unknowingly, averted getting myself killed!

Unlike the Jackalas 1 family, I was not shot at. But who knows what could have happened if I had obeyed the constable and driven past, just as the Jackalas 1 family did? What also made it so risky was the fact that had I driven past the constable, there would have been no reason to stop at the senior cop because he had lowered his hand BEFORE I REACHED THE CONSTABLE, and while the constable was still waving me NOT to stop!

Phew! on "hindsight", I think that I am lucky to be alive.