UB TO THE RESCUE
Mmadikolo to enrol political leaders for etiquette courses Recent public spat between two MPs in Parliament cited was shocking
The country’s premiere institution of higher learning, University of Botswana, is ready and willing to offer political leaders short courses on etiquette.
This emerged Friday morning during the signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between UB and Gaborone City Council.
In his remarks the city mayor, Father Thata Maphongo had appealed to UB Vice Chancellor, Prof. David Norris that the MoU must consider some form of “training arrangement” for Councillors and the country’s political leaders.
Maphongo alluded, without mentioning specifics, to a recent verbal altercation between two Parliamentarians that shocked the public, to make the case for the imperative of training political leaders.
He also revealed that a number of Councillors from GCC were “lined up” for courses at UB, and appealed to Norris to “please don’t chase them away.”
Giving a vote of thanks, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs, Prof. Happy Siphambe said UB was open to offering politicians short courses on etiquette.
Speaking to The Midweek Sun after the ceremony, the Mayor said the type of training that he envisages for GCC staff is on issues around etiquette, general leadership and project management, the latter which he said was “key.”
He said once the UB makes the courses available, GCC would identify the need and then pay for those structured courses.
Prof Norris said they were in the process of identifying training needs for the country’s political leaders. For example, he said that Botswana loses out on so many opportunities from most of the international agreements that the country enters into either at bilateral or multilateral level.
“If there is a country that loses out on international agreements it is Botswana,” he said lamenting that this notwithstanding Botswana is the most “loyal country that pays its dues to these bodies,” be it at SADC, African Union or the United Nations.
The MoU between UB and GCC has identified a number of areas of collaboration, among them promoting Gaborone Main Mall as a Cultural Hub; transforming Gaborone Game Reserve into a Zoo; providing Skills training for SMMEs and research and development.
The ceremony was graced by among others Deputy Mayor Lotty Manyepedza, GCC Town Clerk, Lebuile Israel, Deputy VC, Academic Affairs, Lopang Mosupi, Councillors, Deans and Directors of UB as well as members of the Committee on Areas of Possible Collaboration between UB and GCC.
Thousands of people commit cybercrime per week in Botswana, and might not even know it.
According to a member of the Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority (BOCRA) Cyber Insider Response Team (CIRT) Mafoko Lebogang, up to 17 000 people download unauthorised materials including movies and music in a space of seven (7) days.
Botswana Police on the other hand has set up an institutional framework to deal with cybercrime including enforcing legislation such as Cybercrime and Computer related Crimes Act, the Penal Code, Electronic Records (Evidence) Act, Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority Act and Data Protection Act. According to Nonofo Dichabe of the Botswana Police Service, common offences include offensive electronic communication, cyber fraud, revenge pornography, personation, unauthorised interference with data, unauthorised access to computer system and cyber harassment. He acknowledges that as members of the public continue to embrace the use of new technologies especially electronic commerce to conduct purchases criminals also have managed to exploit the vulnerabilities inherent within the new social landscape. Among trends, the Police have discovered that change of supplier details has increased. This is where a company receives emails attached with requests for quotations allegedly from big corporations like Botswana power Corporation, Botswana Railways, Air Botswana and mines for the supply of equipment. Large sums of money are paid to the alleged supplier based outside the country and goods are never delivered.
“Others are defrauded through purchasing goods advertised on Facebook.” This form of crime according to the Police, experienced a surge in recent times because companies have increasingly been making online transfers as opposed to the physical transactions at bank halls. “Banking details were changed through unscrupulous means,” Dichabe says. There was also a rise in fake adverts concerning companies dealing with Covid19 prevention and containment equipment. “Individuals and companies were using branding for reputable companies when tendering. Some manufactured sub-standard materials like sanitisers but used the reputable companies to brand their products”.
The police have also noticed that digital or mobile money fraud has increased. Dichabe is however, worried that these often go unreported and therefore presents a difficulty of knowing the real extent of the problem. The lack of reporting also affects issues concerning cyber bullying or offensive electronic communication where spats take place on social media and fizzle out and are never reported.
He cautions lovers not to get overly excited to a point where they take pornographic videos of themselves in happier times, because as soon as the relationship sours, they use the videos to get back at each other.
“Revenge pornography is a problem. Because good times roll into bad times and partners start blackmailing each other,” Dichabe says.
The Police have also discovered a modus operandi of criminals who steal the identity of unsuspecting individuals and use them to obtain loans from financial institutions with forged identity documents, payslip, bank statement, and letter of employment confirmation.
Members of the public have been urged to beware criminals who also steal vital information from unsuspecting victims by sending malicious email attachments, which have Trojans, malware and backdoors.
Criminals, according to Dichabe would be posing as a legitimate institution to lure individuals into providing sensitive data such as personally identifiable information banking and credit or debit card details and passwords.
Dichabe adds that personation has increased especially during this period of Covid19, where criminals have been impersonating prominent persons and soliciting for donations for Covid19 to assist the vulnerable.
Dichabe says because cyber crime goes beyond boundaries, cross border investigations have been a challenge because of restricted movements due to Covid19. “Some challenges are created by the anonymity that information and communication technology affords to users,” he says, adding that anonymity enables individuals or criminals to engage in activities without revealing themselves and or their actions to others thus making it difficult to effect arrest of perpetrators. According to BOCRA, as at September 30, 2020 there were 830 000 facebook subscribers in Botswana, while internet penetration is at 47 percent.