SOPE, THE AYES HAVE IT
BDP forces SOPE on citizens
This week, President Mokgweetsi Masisi extended the State of Public Emergency (SOPE) again by six months.
The third endorsement comes following the first one which was on 2nd April, 2020, followed by another one in August. During his presentation, Masisi said that SOPE was the strongest legal tool availed in the law to provide sufficient legal leverage in disease containment and control. The Voice staffer, DANIEL CHIDA, engages opposition parties and Union leadership on the matter.
MOETI MOHWASA - UDC HEAD OF COMMUNICATIONS
The SOPE is introduced because there is an emergency that needs immediate and extraordinary interventions. It is not supposed to be a way of life and it centralises power, something that runs against the grain of democracy. We were told that the SOPE was introduced to, among other things, put in place necessary facilities to prepare for a worst case scenario but all the things that we were told we were to achieve if we used the President’s powers instead of the Director’s have not been attained.
South Africa is currently making great progress on reducing Covid-19 infections and deaths without SOPE by that country’s President. We are failing to achieve the same with a Presidential SOPE. At the rate at which we are moving, our infection rate per capita is higher than that of South Africa. So to say for you to be effective you need a Presidential SOPE is not correct.
Over the past several years, Botswana has been able to control Foot and Mouth Disease through the Animal Disease Act under the Director of Veterinary Services. This Act has been implemented nationally under the powers vested in the Director of Veterinary Services and at no stage did the public fail to comply because the stringent requirements were administered under the powers of a civil servant. So this naive support of the implementation of the SOPE under the President in Botswana is suspect! Human Health or Animal Disease Control Protocols do not need emergency powers under the President, particularly where it is being made to stretch over a year, if accountable and effective institutions with adequate resources and manpower are in place. No country that believes in democracy, civil liberties and good governance can have an SOPE running for so long.
The SOPE has caused irreparable damage to the economy. This has been used to mischievously justify looting, corruption, misuse of resources and lack of accountability.
KETLHALEFILE MOTSHEGWA - BLLAHWU’S SECRETARY GENERAL
As a Labour movement, we vehemently stated our opposition to the extension of state of emergency, because the past state of emergency was not accounted for, and no valid reasons have been advanced for extension.
The fact that citizens are uncomfortable with extension of state of emergency, and government disregarded that and went ahead with extension means we have a government that does not listen to its citizens, and this is contempt to effective consultation and democracy.
The concern is increasing looting and lack of accountability under state of emergency. South Africa is currently making great progress on reducing Covid19 infections and deaths without a SOE while Botswana is failing to achieve the same with a Presidential SOE. Why is government not amending the Public Health Act to strengthen it to deal with pandemics and natural disasters? A one man rule over such a long period of time is bad for our democracy and this epoch will remain a dark part of our history.
The time is now for people of this Country to stand up for their rights and the future of this country.
BIGGIE GANDA BUTALE – BOTSWANA PATRIOTIC FRONT PRESIDENT
A key aspect of good leadership is empathy and at times of crisis such as this one, citizens look to government and national leaders for direction and comfort. Unfortunately for us, such is not forthcoming. What is coming forth is unbridled arrogance, bitter anger and outright selfishness from the leadership and government.
The extension of SOPE without an honest reflection on its achievements and failures is sheer arrogance from some who seem to think the country is now their bequeathed private property. The desire to rule by decree can no longer be justified and we challenge parliament to pass a motion of no confidence on this reckless and failure of a President and his regime. Botswana needs more urgency with vaccine acquisition for our people. That’s where all hands ought to be on deck.
The President should not be indulging his fetish for travel gallivanting all over on other business if indeed there is a crisis that requires a state of emergency. We would expect that he be home dealing with Covid-19. The posture and focus of this President is not on Covid. If indeed there was a crisis that requires a SOPE for a year running and now extended for another six months, he would not have been busy accumulating farms, gobbling up shares and awarding tenders to his friends and family but busy securing the vaccine instead. Poorer countries accessed the vaccine before us and vaccinated their people before us. To make matters worse, even with the vaccine, it looks he intends to take a whole year to vaccinate just over a million people. This is failure at its best.
Many more people will die when they should not have died. More of our people will die because of the clumsiness and incompetence of President Masisi. SOPE is not needed to enforce any of the health protocol measures in place. The President chose to do nothing but instead got busy with trivial matters.