President Masisi must come out and address the nation

Dr Masisi wee, a lot has been said about a lot of things happening around you and about you. There is just too much to talk about one does not even know where to start.

However, one thing is for certain Dr Masisi – your credibility as a leader is at an all-time low. If elections were to be called tomorrow, I doubt any of your MPs would return to Parliament. You see, a lot of things just do not add up. On the one hand you and your party ministers are buying a lodge from a former party minister for about 58million pula. There was never any budget for this purchase. No matter how much you guys try to explain this matter of the lodge in Gantsi, everything just refuses to fall into place. No logic. No sense. No shame.

Twisted priorities at best. While we question the acquisition of the lodge, there is the withdrawal of funds that were budgeted and planned for educational institutions. The money is withdrawn to pay temporary teachers. Still doesn’t make sense. How were the teachers employed without any budget for them? Surely there must have been a plan to hire the teachers and therefore it goes without saying that funds were secured to fund their employment. Why would you think that some layman out there is crazy to think that your priorities are twisted for you to be buying some lodge for the benefit of a very few, at the expense of a national project that is meant to benefit all? Things just don’t add up – our healthcare facilities right now need a lot of strengthening both at human and other capital, with the Covid-19 scourge rearing its ugly head. We need to be capacitating our healthcare systems in this era of the dreaded virus, but we are concerned with splashing out money for something that we do not really need at the moment. Tota rraetsho, who are your advisors? How do you sleep wena everyday knowing that these things are happening under your watch? Do you not see a similar pattern in you that prevailed during the era of your predecessor who also wasted national funds on unnecessary things while neglecting the wider needs of Batswana? Are you not the same guy today telling us that your former boss was a bad leader under whose watch the economy of this country crumbled, forming the basis upon which our country finds itself in the economic mess we are facing today?

It is common knowledge that a lot of money was wasted by your predecessor and there was hope that your ascendency to the top would help restore economic order, but it seems we are headed for even the worst era of senseless spending even as you always say your government is doing a lot to empower Batswana. About the huge amount of land to be allocated to your office in Okavango??? What are we saying to Batswana out there who need amenities since yesterday and today watch and marvel at the ease with which you or your office can get land for amusement when they have long sought to be allocated land for survival? You mean you have learnt no lessons from what Batswana did to your predecessor – for is it not a fact that most Batswana wanted to disassociate with him so much that when he worked with the opposition many ran in the opposite direction just to spite him? That is partly how you attained power kana waitse? And now you are quickly becoming exactly what he was by allowing dubious things to happen under your watch, and mostly said to be about you, the President. Some Presidents in some countries flatly refuse to accept some projects meant for them, boldly declaring it would be a waste of public funds. Keeping quiet about some of the things said to be done in your name can only mean that they are your idea – that you sent bo Morwaeng to speak on your behalf about such things. You just need to come out clearly to say you don’t support the idea of buying a lodge in Gantsi especially given the economic realities we are facing.

If anything then, you need to come out and address the nation to answer to all these things because people out there do not understand what really is going on. People see you to be just as corrupt as your predecessor. They do not care that the people speaking on your behalf are MPs or Ministers – people out there believe gore o ba romile. The most credible thing you can do therefore is to come out as President, to set the record straight and explain what you know about these acquisitions and why you think they are priority areas at the moment. Your party footsoldiers are hurting already. They just no longer have any ammunition to defend the actions of your government. They are the ones who have soiled and toiled to see you up there but now no longer know what you guys at the top there are really doing. Kana it should bother you gore all these unpopular decisions will affect your popularity among the people - yourself as a leader, and your party. To continue disregarding dissenting voices seems to suggest that you guys do not care. It is like you are resigned to Fate – as if people who have accepted that they won’t be in power in the next few years and therefore are doing as they please so that they would be rich once ousted. Your reputation and credibility are at stake here – in fact, the damage may have already been done.

You may think 2024 is far from now, but Batswana are no longer as forgetful as in the past where social media activity was at a low. Now things have changed and information travels fast and reaches more people than ever before. We may not understand a lot that is happening at the top, but you owe it to us to explain gore tota gatwe go diragala eng. Even your councilors are in the dark about the decisions you make, and are already planning to disassociate themselves with the decisions of your MPs and ministers. Tswaa fela mo serubing rraetsho, o tle go re bolelela gore ware o isa lefatshe le kae. You have disappointed a lot of people who had expected a lot from you. Even your MPs and ministers have become a disgrace in Parliament. We cannot have come from what we felt was the worst President to ever rule this country, only to find ourselves jumping into the proverbial fire. In you we trusted, in you we are disappointed.