HOW POLITICAL DEFECTIONS CAN BENEFIT VOTERS

We don’t know ( and nobody knows) which party the Shoshong MP, Aubrey Lesaso, belongs to. What we know for sure, which we stated last week, is that there was nothing wrong with him legally trading a commodity that belongs to him personally ( political power) in the political marketplace. Voters typically get into a fit of rage each time an MP or councilor defects and the parties being dumped routinely have something nasty to say about the person who is defecting. What would be productive is for all parties concerned to find a way to use the political power of elected officials in a more creative and effective way. If the Botswana Stock Exchange is forever developing new market products, why can’t the political stock exchange do the same thing? It is common knowledge that thanks to weak regulation, virtually all- private universities are crime scenes where students get what one can’t realistically call education while the government continues to pay them millions of pula.

As a collective, Umbrella for Democratic Change MPs have a lot of political power that they can use to get the government to make education oversight institutions force private universities provide quality education. UDC can cut a deal with the government in terms of which it will suspend all hostilities for a full parliamentary session in exchange for the latter ensuring that students get quality education. It has been rumoured that Okavango MP, Kenny Kapinga, and his Ngami counterpart, Kainangura Hikuama, both of whom belong to the UDC, are on their way to the ruling party. Rather than have a situation where they benefit personally, the two MPs could use their political power to get the ruling party to rehabilitate the Sehithwa- Shakawe road which transverses both their constituencies. The deal would be such that the government fixes the road in exchange for their defection to the BDP. Other MPs can cut similar deals to get things done in their own constituencies and guess what … voters would absolutely love it.