Shashe

Stealing fourteen thousand hectares of pristine, flat, productive land may seem hard to accomplish, but not if the thief is a government, and the owner of the land is illiterate. As our country’s sixtieth Independence anniversary approaches, one family sees it as yet another milestone in their forced deprivation. Hubona Nshakazhogwe was a peasant in colonial Bechuanaland Protectorate, who sued Chief Khama iii following the chief’s despatch of a regiment to assault, and if necessary, kill him in or around the year 1914. Hubona won the suit on appeal to the British Privy Council, and was compensated with the 14000 hectares of land. That land has now been stolen.  To be fair to the ruling Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) party, which came to power only in 2024 after fifty eight (58) years of rule by the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) , the UDC had nothing to do with the said theft. The theft was entirely the work of the BDP government. But conventional wisdom, and even the legal ...

We have identified a problem regarding the SADC unity referenda between South Africa and Lesotho. Given that there is only one boundary involved, the referendum in Lesotho would simply reduce to whether the Lesotho nationals want unity or not, rather than to assigning different weights to different boundaries as in other countries, South Africa included. The referendum billet in Lesotho would then be about unity, and not about which country to unite with. If UNITY passes the referendum test, then we could end up with a new composite country called South Afr-otho (South Afrotho) at Level1. Well, just thinking... 

 The referenda can be conducted simultaneously or at different times in all SADC countries. However, the best results are likely to accrue from simultaneous referenda because such referenda eliminate neighbour contamination bias. Unity of SADC countries is assumed to be in stages, herein referred to as unity levels (UL). Unity Level1 (UL1) proceeds from the current state of country sovereignty to the first composite sovereignty, where some countries will have united with others. Unity Level2 (UL2) involves the unity of composite, as opposed to initial, sovereignties. As Unity levels are progressively traversed, the nature of the SADC organisation itself will gradually approach a Union State. How long a stage or level lasts will be determined by the SADC organisation prevailing at the time.  This write-up concerns itself only with Unity level1 (UL1).  A SADC member country (SMC) may unite only with a SMC with which it shares a common border. A sea border is considered a co...

Broadcasting news in national languages other than English and Setswana is a good thing. The government deserves to be praised for that. However, the implementation of the measure leaves listeners somewhat confused, When a report written by correspondent X is presented on BTV, it has to be translated by correspondent Y into whatever the current newscast language is. The identities of both correspondents X and Y are revealed. So far, so good.  The problem comes at the end of the translation. The translator signs off as if the report was WRITTEN by him/her, and not merely so translated. This is wrong. Unless the listener followed the report all the way from start of introduction, the listener is left with the false impression that the report was written/crafted by the translator Y and not by its true author X. The correct approach  should swap the introductions around. The news reader should present ONLY the name of the WRITER of the report. At the end of the translation, the tr...

 I just watched (on TV) an operation by South African Police Service (SAPS) to arrest illegal miners in Gauteng Province. According to General Fred Kekana of the SAPS, one hundred and seven (107) of the captured illegal miners are Lesotho nationals, while a lesser number are from other SADC countries. Presumably, all the foreigners will be deported back to their countries, once the legal processes have been finalised. In the case of Lesotho nationals what this suggests is that they will no longer be welcome in South Africa. But their country is TOTALLY surrounded by South Africa, meaning that it is practically impossible for the latter to make her borders impenetrable to the soon to be deported illegal miners! So my question to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is: Why has no SADC meeting resolved to conduct referendums in ALL SADC countries to determine what percentage of their nationals WANT their countries to UNITE, and with which, if any, of their neighbours?...

They recently buried the scoundrel. Flags fluttered at half-mast. From eyes half-glazed by booze tears trickled down chubby cheeks puffed up by our stolen wealth. This, I imagine, is what took place, because I was not there. I did not attend, nor did I watch on TV. The scene was “too ghastly to contemplate”. Festus Mogae had accolades posthumously heaped on him. What I found particularly distressing was the credit he was given for battling the HIV pandemic in our country; all because he had gone to the International community with a begging bowl on our behalf and declared that AIDS was threatening to wipe us out. The International community generously responded and offered help. What Festus Mogae did not tell the International community was his role in the way the disease spread around the country. It was at a time when Government was the main employer of the common man in our country. Mogae was Permanent Secretary to the President (PSP) and Head of the Civil Service. Married civil ser...