Shashe

 There have been rumblings of late, criticizing our continued use of the death penalty. I think these criticisms are misplaced. The death penalty can and should be practiced WITH A SLEW OF SAFEGUARDS AGAINST INTENTIONAL ABUSE by the state, and unintended failure of the justice system. If we replace the death penalty with life imprisonment, it won’t be long before we have criminals serving life in jail and serving death to innocent citizens on the outside SIMULTANEOUSLY. How would we then deter such criminals other than through the death penalty?  Look, it is hypocritical of any state to say it does not practice the death penalty, when it LICENSES some of its citizens as non-state actors, to carry firearms. In such a situation, the state has effectively OUTSOURCED THE DEATH PENALTY to private citizens; to mete out the penalty to would be criminals who try to usurp the state’s right to be the sole practitioner of said penalty. State actors carrying firearms on the other hand are...

 There are several practical steps that can be taken to successfully roll back Chirwa: 1. Chirwa language should immediately lose its “official” status to the English language. 2. Ability to speak Chirwa language should immediately cease to be a requirement for one to obtain Botswana citizenship. 3. Chirwa, just like other “indigenous” languages, should cease to be a compulsory subject in schools. Where possible, scholars should be encouraged to study any other languages spoken in the country, including Chirwa. Only English should be retained as a compulsory language in schools. 4. Knowledge or proficiency in Chirwa should immediately cease to be a requirement for one to get a government Department of Information and Broadcasting job. Instead, that requirement should be replaced by consideration of THE TOTAL NUMBER OF “INDEGENOUS” languages that the applicant is proficient in. 5. Government should move to legalise community radio stations which will have the latitude, tho...

 On Friday, August 1st a local newspaper “The Voice”, reported a harrowing story about a young couple, an eighteen (18) year old girl and her twenty-four (24) year old lover, being each jailed for twenty years, after being convicted of performing anal sex on an eleven year old girl. Evidently, the 18 year old girl was not prepared to take her lover’s dick into that part of her own anatomy! The incident, and subsequent trial took place in a town that is traditionally NOT a Setswana speaking region of the country. Like most of our country however, the people who live there were forcibly de-linked from their language and culture by the Setswana speakers following the declaration in 1971 that henceforth, ONLY Setswana language would remain official.  What these two young people did was horrific. They deserve a harsh punishment. But should our disgust at what they did lead us to lock them away for practically ALL their productive years? Are there no extenuating circumstances? Do we...