This Law has no place in a democracy!

In a shocking move, the government has passed a new bill that will allow security agencies such as the Directorate of Intelligence and Security ( DIS) to keep tabs on us. The Criminal Procedure and Evidence ( Controlled Investigations) Bill will make provision for controlled investigations and undercover operations framework, including the handling of information by investigating authorities. Part III of the proposed law provides for an interception of communications framework, which authorises the interception of communications by investigatory authorities and sets out the role of service providers in controlled investigations for the gathering of criminal evidence. To say this is a shocking move by government is an understatement because the government has no business in turning the surveillance on its citizens. This is deeply concerning and raises questions about whether our constitutional rights are secure. Government should work on making sure that our civil liberties are protected instead of encroaching on them. Every citizen has a right to privacy, right to freedom of expression, the right to liberty, and the right to freedom of association and surely tapping citizens’ phones under the guise of law enforcement investigations is not protecting all those rights. This is an invasion of our privacy and unconstitutional. As attorney Kgosi Ngakaagae has put it, this is the end of our democracy, as we know it. President Masisi’s government should channel its efforts towards job creation and bringing the necessary developments to the country. This law will negatively affect journalists who work with sensitive information and sources. This law will expose journalists to intimidation and harassment by government agencies. The same can happen to opposition leaders and those in civil society. Legitimising surveillance on citizens has no place in a democracy like ours. It is ironic that this piece of law comes at a time when the country is in the thick of the constitutional review debate. What should we, therefore, deduce from the constitutional review?

Is it a smokescreen designed to assuage our egos and lull us into a false belief that we care about civil liberties when in actual fact our deeds give us away? This Bill certainly negates all the efforts of this administration to heal old wounds. There’s the Media Practitioners’ Act, currently under review to democratise it by removing executive outreach. We are afraid such noble efforts will count for nothing if government disregards public dissent and unilaterally implements the heinous law that authorises it to spy and eavesdrop on citizens’ telephonic conversation. This law has no place in our statute books! Just stop this madness!

SHOULD MASISI ATTEND THE NEXT SINO- AFRICA SUMMIT?

From time to time, China summons African leaders to Beijing for the Sino- Africa Summit but is it a good idea for Botswana presidents to keep attending these summits? The historical record suggests a no answer. In the past, some local Chinese shops sold “Tirelo Dibacha” T- shirts, and a Chinese shopkeeper in Gantsi was caught with a stash of cloned Botswana Telecommunications Corporation airtime vouchers. Contrary to what some may think voucher numbers are not haphazard but follow a particular order that you can decipher if you are good at mathematics. Apparently, the outfit that this shopkeeper worked with had cracked the BTC code and cloned a second fake set of vouchers with numbers similar to those of legitimate vouchers. In the future, Botswana’s diamonds will face stiff competition from ones China is cloning. We also know that the United States has complained about China cloning Nike and Adidas and many more US products. A couple of days ago, China took the biggest technological leap ever when it cloned the sun. Yes, the sun that God made. It is common knowledge that China can’t get enough of Africa’s natural resources and wants compliant African leaders. If the Chinese can clone Tirelo Sechaba T- shirts, BTC airtime vouchers, gem diamonds, Nike and Adidas sportswear, and the sun, what can stop it from cloning African leaders, programming them to be pro- China, and deploying them to Africa? The real leaders would be secretly banished to a mountainous area to work as unpaid labour in rice fields. That might sound far- fetched but if the Chinese can clone the sun, what can stop them from cloning an African president programmed to publicly say “bo- Rampeechane” 80 times a day each time tensions heighten over the border dispute between China and India?

AND IF PALESA WINS MISS WORLD ……

We also have to consider how Palesa Molefe’s win at the Miss World contest might motivate the technological wizardry of the Chinese. Part of dominating the world, something that China is frightfully keen on, means establishing one’s presence in all facets of international public life. The Chinese have observed how a short- haired South African woman won Miss Universe 2019 and how two bald- headed black contestants from Southern Africa are doing exceptionally well at the ( delayed) Miss World 2021 contest. Palesa’s win would confirm that while black is beautiful, black beauties with short hair or bald heads are winner material. That might motivate the laboratory that cloned the sun to clone a short- haired or baldheaded black beauty and field her at an international beauty contest. Faking her Chinese background would be very easy. In short, the Chinese may be about to clone Palesa.

PLEASE PLAY PRE- COVID MUSIC

Beyond debilitating the body, Covid- 19 is also taking a heavy toll on everybody’s mental health. We have to mention this because not enough people are paying attention to this aspect of the pandemic and resultantly, there is no real effort to ease the distress that the disease causes. Here’s a thought: those in charge of public airwaves ( Btv, radio stations, and nightclubs) should start playing pre- Covid music only – hopefully, those who dance to that music will also do pre- Covid dances and not Covid- era ones like “Delta.” In that way, people would be able to take their minds back to a less diseased and less stressful period of time. Jukeboxes of bars in lowincome neighbourhoods can’t bear this responsibility alone.

OUTBREAK OF CORRUPTION

With the atypical occurrence of malaria cases in the Kweneng District, the Ministry of Health and Wellness ( MoHW) has put out a press statement that says that in terms of its policy, a single malaria case is considered an outbreak. Semantically that is misleading but one understands the motivation for such policy. One wishes that the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime could adopt a similar policy: declare an outbreak with the discovery of a single case of corruption. Such deceptive use of language might hopefully cause the Directorate ( as indeed the government) to take corruption as seriously as MoHW takes malaria.

WHY STUDENTS FAIL

English teachers tell students to interact intensely with the linguistic ecosystem that they live in to better learn and master the language. This might sound like good advice but is really not because lately, part of that linguistic ecosystem has taken to corrupting simple English words. Some 10 or so years ago, “activation” simply meant making something active or operative. As a matter of fact, that is the dictionary meaning – the meaning that some are now subverting. Nowadays, if a company promotes a new product at some Vee- headlined shindig, that is an “activation.” Another term is “solution”, which in one respect means an answer to a problem. That is not how some use that word today: it is deceptively equated with “service”, such that a school that wants teachers, flights newspaper adverts that say it is looking for candidates who can provide teaching solutions. Then there is “adjust”, which the MerriamWebster dictionary defines as bringing something to a more satisfactory state. Since Covid- 19, the government has been “adjusting” prices in an escalatory fashion, which adjustments are impoverishing some people and leaving everybody else in a state of dissatisfaction. Down the road, this problem will solve itself when voters make electoral adjustments.