Monday, July 27, 2015
Dipholo's article an eye-opener!
I don't remember ever making a post like this one - simply exhorting the readers (especially the so-called "Youth") to please read Kenneth Dipholo's column in yesterday's Sunday Standard newspaper (July 26 - 1 August, 2015). The column is called "Badge of Courage", and the article is about "Skills' mismatch..."
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Get up Mperi!
As you lay sprawled on the people’s pavement
The enemy’s face wearing a smirk of amusement
Stroking his pompous belly with misplaced satisfaction
Oblivious of the fact he never faced our election
Nor has he experienced our wrath in insurrection
I wanted to cry “Get up Mperi and lead us to Canaan!”
In your splendid white suit you had entered our Parliament
To voice our plight, our thirst, our powerless predicament
For that is what we elected you to do, to represent us
Even in the face of those who would rather repress us
But they had other ideas; their ignorant mongrels
Whose brain power is limited to Yes Sir, Whom Sir?
Stood ready to take any order from the pompous unelected
Even the order to desecrate our Parliament
By throwing out those whom we elected
I say get up Mperi and lead us to Canaan!
The enemy’s face wearing a smirk of amusement
Stroking his pompous belly with misplaced satisfaction
Oblivious of the fact he never faced our election
Nor has he experienced our wrath in insurrection
I wanted to cry “Get up Mperi and lead us to Canaan!”
In your splendid white suit you had entered our Parliament
To voice our plight, our thirst, our powerless predicament
For that is what we elected you to do, to represent us
Even in the face of those who would rather repress us
But they had other ideas; their ignorant mongrels
Whose brain power is limited to Yes Sir, Whom Sir?
Stood ready to take any order from the pompous unelected
Even the order to desecrate our Parliament
By throwing out those whom we elected
I say get up Mperi and lead us to Canaan!
Saturday, July 11, 2015
Chinese ambassador's warning!
Given that our members of parliament (MP's) get thrown out of Parliament when they attempt to debate issues surrounding Morupule B powerstation and scarcity of water in the pipes of Gaborone, we are left with no choice but to ask the pertinent questions online!
It has not been denied by our Government that the Chinese ambassador's warning about the incompetence of the Chinese company to build a station the size of Morupule B, went unheeded. But strangely, the Government has never revealed who exactly (in Government) received that warning, and how far up the chain of command the warning was escalated.
We know that at the apex of projects sat the then vice-president (now president) Lt. General Ian Khama. Above him sat his then boss, President Festus Mogae. So my question is this: Who received the Chinese ambassador's warning, and how far up the chain of command was the warning escalated?
I ask this question fully aware that I may get hurled my way, an answer similar to the one assistant commissioner Mbulawa of the BPS supplied regarding the whereabouts of the report on the fatal helicopter crash - 'the report was given to the people who matter'!
It has not been denied by our Government that the Chinese ambassador's warning about the incompetence of the Chinese company to build a station the size of Morupule B, went unheeded. But strangely, the Government has never revealed who exactly (in Government) received that warning, and how far up the chain of command the warning was escalated.
We know that at the apex of projects sat the then vice-president (now president) Lt. General Ian Khama. Above him sat his then boss, President Festus Mogae. So my question is this: Who received the Chinese ambassador's warning, and how far up the chain of command was the warning escalated?
I ask this question fully aware that I may get hurled my way, an answer similar to the one assistant commissioner Mbulawa of the BPS supplied regarding the whereabouts of the report on the fatal helicopter crash - 'the report was given to the people who matter'!
Thursday, July 9, 2015
Tribes of the Kalanga nation
If you understand neither Kalanga nor Sotho/Tswana language, I'm afraid you will not be able to understand this post.
I have always wondered why, if you ask a Kalanga of "Kwena" tribe what his/her totem is, he/she seldom if ever, says "Ngwena". They seem to always either say "Kwena" or "Mokwena". Indeed one such Kalanga chief said to me "To tuna Kwena, to dwa ku Molepolole!", which translates to "Our totem is Kwena, we come from Molepolole!".
I will not go into the merits or demerits of the claim "we come from Molepolole" as I am sure by now the reader understands the warped mentality of some Kalangas, post the British ceding our country to Barwa. What I am trying to point out here is the incongruity of a Kalanga calling his/her totem by a "Tswana" name! There is something very odd about a Kalanga saying his totem in Setswana language.
As it turns out there is nothing odd about it at all - because "Kwena" is not a Tswana word, but a Anunnaki/Kalanga word! We know who the Bakwena are of course. These are the people who looked after/herded the animals whose milk sustained the Anunnaki at Khami/Nkami, just outside Bulawayo. That is why today the names Ko-disa, Modisaotsile, Nlisi, Badisa are common among the Bakwena.
And so as herders, the "battle cry" of the Bakwena as it were, was the cry "Ku-ina!", meaning "To the water hole/source!", and that being a directive to their animal herds to head for water. The word "Ku-ina" is what was corrupted to become "Kwena". You see, in reality Barwa have no totem, because they are from Bulawayo and not from Mapungubwe like most other "Batswana". In Mapungubwe the Anunnaki devised totems to control workflow across a very wide diversity of early human workgroups. You can read all about that in my (Zwidenkalanga) posts on forums.gov.bw. At Nkami there were just animal herders and milkers; not much diversity at all. Therefore the need for totems fell away. That is why the Bangwato (Milkers) ended up adopting the Baka-Tjiliga (Boo-Seleka) totem of the duiker (Phuthi) when they arrived in Botswana and were "seconded" by Nshakazhogwe to the Mathangwane people. The other milkers (Bangwa-khwizi/Bangwaketse) stuck to their "battle cry" - "Ku-ina!", alias "Kwena".
The Bakwena are not the only people who were ultimately named according to their "battle-cry". The name "Bayeyi" is another example of a cry that became a name. The true name of Bayeyi is Bakoba, with the "o" pronounced as in "go away!" and not as in "book". One can write a book on Bakoba. "Ku koba" in Kalanga means to apportion (to more than one person) individally. A Moyeyi is Nkoba in Kalanga. He stood at the door (also Nkoba in Kalanga) during feeding time and gave portions of food to those needing to be fed. A door is called "Kgoro" in Setswana, suggesting that that is where people went to be fed (go kgora).
The Mokoba/Moyeyi contolled the human "traffic" with the help of a branch of a very prickley tree. The Tswana call the tree "Mokoba". In Kalanga, the tree is called "Nkosho", meaning that it spent the day (ku shwa) next to the door/Moyeyi (Nkoba). So the Tswana name and the Kalanga name of that tree, although different phonetically, have the same origin, and describe the same use for the named tree! Is it possible that there were Bakoba at Nkami? Absolutely! The Anunnaki might even have brought them all the way from Mapungubwe, via Great Zimbabwe to Nkami. It's like Bakhwa. In Kalanga we say "Hakuna pasina Nkhwa", meaning that there is nowhere on earth where there are no Bakhwa (Bushmen). Of course this follows from the fact that wherever the Anunnaki camped, save perhaps for the ice caps at the North and South poles, they needed to be cooled, hence Nkhwa (Bushman) had to be there!.
Now, let's end this post on a rather sad note. We all know that the Bangwato in Ngamiland now call themselves "Batawana", and that the British declared Bambukusho a subject tribe to the "Batawana". The Bambukushu are the true Batawana. The Bangwato of Chief Tawana Moremi are usurpers of the name "Batawana". The name "Batawana" is a Kalanga word, meaning "Those whom we found". We know that the Bangwato of Moremi found the Bambukusho in Ngamiland because the latter are an earlier generation of humanity than the former. The Bambukusho's responsibility as a human work group was to "beat and mix" the faeces that the Anunnaki ate for sustenance. The tool used is called "mpukusho" in Kalanga, "lehetho or lefetlho" in Setswana. The Bangwato's responsibility in contrast, was to milk cows at Nkami near Bulawayo.
Because the Anunnaki used to eat our faeces BEFORE they changed to a milk diet, we can safely conclude that the Bambukusho pre-date the Bangwato of Chief Moremi in Ngamiland, i.e. the latter found the former there - Batawana.
Chiefs' names are just a big spin! For instance, if you look at the chieftainship line of Bangwato online, you will find a Chief named Ngwato. But we know there was never such a chief, because Ngwato simply means "Nngwa-Ato", a Kalanga word meaning "a milker for Ato/Anunnaki".
I have always wondered why, if you ask a Kalanga of "Kwena" tribe what his/her totem is, he/she seldom if ever, says "Ngwena". They seem to always either say "Kwena" or "Mokwena". Indeed one such Kalanga chief said to me "To tuna Kwena, to dwa ku Molepolole!", which translates to "Our totem is Kwena, we come from Molepolole!".
I will not go into the merits or demerits of the claim "we come from Molepolole" as I am sure by now the reader understands the warped mentality of some Kalangas, post the British ceding our country to Barwa. What I am trying to point out here is the incongruity of a Kalanga calling his/her totem by a "Tswana" name! There is something very odd about a Kalanga saying his totem in Setswana language.
As it turns out there is nothing odd about it at all - because "Kwena" is not a Tswana word, but a Anunnaki/Kalanga word! We know who the Bakwena are of course. These are the people who looked after/herded the animals whose milk sustained the Anunnaki at Khami/Nkami, just outside Bulawayo. That is why today the names Ko-disa, Modisaotsile, Nlisi, Badisa are common among the Bakwena.
And so as herders, the "battle cry" of the Bakwena as it were, was the cry "Ku-ina!", meaning "To the water hole/source!", and that being a directive to their animal herds to head for water. The word "Ku-ina" is what was corrupted to become "Kwena". You see, in reality Barwa have no totem, because they are from Bulawayo and not from Mapungubwe like most other "Batswana". In Mapungubwe the Anunnaki devised totems to control workflow across a very wide diversity of early human workgroups. You can read all about that in my (Zwidenkalanga) posts on forums.gov.bw. At Nkami there were just animal herders and milkers; not much diversity at all. Therefore the need for totems fell away. That is why the Bangwato (Milkers) ended up adopting the Baka-Tjiliga (Boo-Seleka) totem of the duiker (Phuthi) when they arrived in Botswana and were "seconded" by Nshakazhogwe to the Mathangwane people. The other milkers (Bangwa-khwizi/Bangwaketse) stuck to their "battle cry" - "Ku-ina!", alias "Kwena".
The Bakwena are not the only people who were ultimately named according to their "battle-cry". The name "Bayeyi" is another example of a cry that became a name. The true name of Bayeyi is Bakoba, with the "o" pronounced as in "go away!" and not as in "book". One can write a book on Bakoba. "Ku koba" in Kalanga means to apportion (to more than one person) individally. A Moyeyi is Nkoba in Kalanga. He stood at the door (also Nkoba in Kalanga) during feeding time and gave portions of food to those needing to be fed. A door is called "Kgoro" in Setswana, suggesting that that is where people went to be fed (go kgora).
The Mokoba/Moyeyi contolled the human "traffic" with the help of a branch of a very prickley tree. The Tswana call the tree "Mokoba". In Kalanga, the tree is called "Nkosho", meaning that it spent the day (ku shwa) next to the door/Moyeyi (Nkoba). So the Tswana name and the Kalanga name of that tree, although different phonetically, have the same origin, and describe the same use for the named tree! Is it possible that there were Bakoba at Nkami? Absolutely! The Anunnaki might even have brought them all the way from Mapungubwe, via Great Zimbabwe to Nkami. It's like Bakhwa. In Kalanga we say "Hakuna pasina Nkhwa", meaning that there is nowhere on earth where there are no Bakhwa (Bushmen). Of course this follows from the fact that wherever the Anunnaki camped, save perhaps for the ice caps at the North and South poles, they needed to be cooled, hence Nkhwa (Bushman) had to be there!.
Now, let's end this post on a rather sad note. We all know that the Bangwato in Ngamiland now call themselves "Batawana", and that the British declared Bambukusho a subject tribe to the "Batawana". The Bambukushu are the true Batawana. The Bangwato of Chief Tawana Moremi are usurpers of the name "Batawana". The name "Batawana" is a Kalanga word, meaning "Those whom we found". We know that the Bangwato of Moremi found the Bambukusho in Ngamiland because the latter are an earlier generation of humanity than the former. The Bambukusho's responsibility as a human work group was to "beat and mix" the faeces that the Anunnaki ate for sustenance. The tool used is called "mpukusho" in Kalanga, "lehetho or lefetlho" in Setswana. The Bangwato's responsibility in contrast, was to milk cows at Nkami near Bulawayo.
Because the Anunnaki used to eat our faeces BEFORE they changed to a milk diet, we can safely conclude that the Bambukusho pre-date the Bangwato of Chief Moremi in Ngamiland, i.e. the latter found the former there - Batawana.
Chiefs' names are just a big spin! For instance, if you look at the chieftainship line of Bangwato online, you will find a Chief named Ngwato. But we know there was never such a chief, because Ngwato simply means "Nngwa-Ato", a Kalanga word meaning "a milker for Ato/Anunnaki".
Monday, April 27, 2015
Appointing judges - President's role merely formal!
I am not a lawyer, however I read with interest the article entitled "Framers of the constitution wanted president to appoint judges" by one Bashi Letsididi in the Sunday Standard newspaper of April 19 - 25.
Thankfully the author quoted but unfortunately mis-interpreted, the minutes of the Independence Conference that was held at Malboorough House, London in February 1966. Rre Letsididi quoted a statement by the legal advisor to the UK team that "It was usual for the President to be formally responsible" (for appointing puisne judges). In said statement the significance of the word "formally" was completely ignored by Rre Letsididi. The same word was included in the next quote "The conference agreed that puisne judges should be FORMALLY (my caps) appointed by the president, acting on the advice of the Judicial Services Commission".
In my layman's view, if the framers of the constitution had wanted the president to have discretion as to whether or not to follow the advice of the JSC, they would have had little use for the word "formally" in their discussions/draft, much less in the final agreement.
In my view the final version that is now contained in section 96 of the constitution succintly captures the intention of the framers. The phrase "acting in accordance with the advice of the Judicial Services Commission" provides the intended and necessary content that would have been missing, had the word "formally" and nothing else, been used in the final constitution. In so doing, the phrase does not reduce the "formality" of the president's action; it defines it.
The conclusion I draw is that the framers of our constitution wanted the JSC, and not the president, to exercise discretion in the choice of puisne judges.
Thankfully the author quoted but unfortunately mis-interpreted, the minutes of the Independence Conference that was held at Malboorough House, London in February 1966. Rre Letsididi quoted a statement by the legal advisor to the UK team that "It was usual for the President to be formally responsible" (for appointing puisne judges). In said statement the significance of the word "formally" was completely ignored by Rre Letsididi. The same word was included in the next quote "The conference agreed that puisne judges should be FORMALLY (my caps) appointed by the president, acting on the advice of the Judicial Services Commission".
In my layman's view, if the framers of the constitution had wanted the president to have discretion as to whether or not to follow the advice of the JSC, they would have had little use for the word "formally" in their discussions/draft, much less in the final agreement.
In my view the final version that is now contained in section 96 of the constitution succintly captures the intention of the framers. The phrase "acting in accordance with the advice of the Judicial Services Commission" provides the intended and necessary content that would have been missing, had the word "formally" and nothing else, been used in the final constitution. In so doing, the phrase does not reduce the "formality" of the president's action; it defines it.
The conclusion I draw is that the framers of our constitution wanted the JSC, and not the president, to exercise discretion in the choice of puisne judges.
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Constitutional fraud or just contradictions ?
The refusal by President Khama to appoint a judge recommended for appointment by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has further exposed what some have called the fraudulent nature of the document we call our constitution.
Per our constitution the President cannot be sued either in his personal or his official capacity. In other words, while president, he can disregard any sanction that the constitution has on his activities as a citizen of the republic. At the same time, in taking his oath of office he swore to obey, uphold and protect the same document – the constitution. It makes no sense to me.
How do you swear to obey (or uphold) a law that explicitly exempts you from obeying it?
Per our constitution the President cannot be sued either in his personal or his official capacity. In other words, while president, he can disregard any sanction that the constitution has on his activities as a citizen of the republic. At the same time, in taking his oath of office he swore to obey, uphold and protect the same document – the constitution. It makes no sense to me.
How do you swear to obey (or uphold) a law that explicitly exempts you from obeying it?
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Another police helicopter purchase ?
Some time last year, a police helicopter crashed while en-route from the far north west of the country to Maun. The pilot, a new mother, died leaving behind a very young baby. The last we heard about the accident was that investigations into the cause of the accident were ongoing!
Today I just read that the Police are going to use my tax dollars/pulas again to purchase three helicopters. Would the Police be so kind as to tell us if the investigations into the Maun crash have been completed, and if so, where we can read the final report on the cause of the accident. If the investigations are still "ongoing" why splash yet more of our hard-earned tax dollars on equipment that could suffer the same fate as the Maun chopper ?
From newspaper reports at the time of the tragedy it seemed very much like the pilot lady had wished to end her workday and fly back to Maun much earlier than she ended up doing, and crashing in the process. This raises questions about how much control a police helicopter pilot has over the operations of his/her chopper. Police seniority should not be allowed to interfere with an aircraft pilot's absolute right of control over her/his craft. That would be a recipe for disaster!
And so, where is that report?
Today I just read that the Police are going to use my tax dollars/pulas again to purchase three helicopters. Would the Police be so kind as to tell us if the investigations into the Maun crash have been completed, and if so, where we can read the final report on the cause of the accident. If the investigations are still "ongoing" why splash yet more of our hard-earned tax dollars on equipment that could suffer the same fate as the Maun chopper ?
From newspaper reports at the time of the tragedy it seemed very much like the pilot lady had wished to end her workday and fly back to Maun much earlier than she ended up doing, and crashing in the process. This raises questions about how much control a police helicopter pilot has over the operations of his/her chopper. Police seniority should not be allowed to interfere with an aircraft pilot's absolute right of control over her/his craft. That would be a recipe for disaster!
And so, where is that report?
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