BOB SHOULD INVESTIGATE POLITICAL PARTIES
Mangaung ( Bloemfontein) court, a murder trial that stars an Indian man called Thabo Bester and big- forehead beautyqueen accomplice called Dr. Nandipha Magudumana. A by- the- way observation to be made is that never before has South Africa spoken so much Sesotho on account of an Indian.
On a daily basis, white, Indian, Coloured and black, non- Sotho journalists struggle to get their tongues around names like Mangaung, Katlego, Teboho Lipholo and Senohe Matsoara. Teboho Lipholo is the most interesting because, courtesy of French missionaries who developed Sotho orthography, the ‘ h’ is actually pronounced as ‘ g’ and the ‘ l’ as ‘ d’. What has emerged so far is that the couple concocted a devious scheme to spring Bester from prison by killing a young man called Katlego Bereng, smuggling his body into prison and burning the body in Bester’s cell to make it look like he ( Bester) had died in a fire. That allowed Bester to literally walk out of prison dressed as a security guard and reconnect with Magudumana. The couple then lived large in a Johannesburg luxury estate until fleeing South Africa and being arrested in Tanzania. So far, the trial is just a circus which, in one respect, took the form of Bester’s lawyers expressing opposition to their client appearing for a hearing via Skype because he ( Bester) “had not been consulted.” What was absurd about that argument was that Bester himself didn’t consult anyone – his lawyers included, when he fled to Tanzania.
If he is indeed half- Sotho, he would know that in Sotho culture, you always announce your departure.
On the other hand, Magudumana, who was okay with the abduction and murder of Bereng, is seeking an order declaring that she was abducted in Tanzania. Bester was already serving life imprisonment and from the TV pictures, his demeanour is of someone who is not worried about the outcome. The demeanour would be wholly different if he was appearing at the Gaborone High Court because he would know what the likeliest verdict would be. Admittedly, being tried in Botswana would come with its own risk - of Bester being given bail.
The Bank of Botswana and the Competition and Consumer Authority have released a press statement in which they say that they are “investigating reports of suspected pyramid and Ponzi schemes, or similar investment vehicles operating in Botswana.”
Hopefully, “similar investment vehicles operating in Botswana” include political parties – which these two institutions have completely ignored for a long time. The modus operandi of pyramid and Ponzi schemes is to recruit people by promising them heaven and earth and encouraging them to recruit more people themselves to build a pyramid. The reality is that the only ones who benefit from political Ponzi schemes are those at the top of the pyramid while those at the base toil for nothing.
At least from listening to Ministry of Health officials on Btv and Radio Botswana, fast foods are a health hazard and should be avoided at all costs. Lest we forget, companies that sell such foods have been licensed to do so by a sister ministry of the same government. There is an even deeper complication: Botswana’s drug supply has been destabilised by Covid- 19 and the usual competence on the part of government officials. The Leader of the Opposition, Dithapelo Keorapetse, has credibly alleged that some patients with chronic diseases died because they couldn’t fill their prescription. The solution is a quite simple one: for as long as the drug supply situation remains unstable, the government should shut down all fast- food outlets and pull all unhealthy food from supermarket shelves.
As punishment for having used new overhead bridges in Gaborone before they were officially commissioned, the Department of Road Safety has banned pedestrians from these bridges. Woe betide motorists whose cars break down on the bridge because they also become pedestrians the minute they step out of their vehicles. The ban has been effected by way of a pedestrian- cancelled sign at the foot of the bridges on either side. There is need for another cancelled sign, one cancelling out “260” because that is the speed that 87.32 percent of cars driven by youthful drivers have been travelling at over the bridges.