Shashe

 I have just switched on my TV and watched a South African channel. President Ramaphosa was addressing a gathering or meeting somewhere in the Northern Cape. This was evidently the extreme tail end of his address. He mentioned that the Northern Cape has a great tourist potential. I can not resist chipping in because for a long time I have wished that I could visit the planetorium or observatory somewhere in the Northern Cape, but I could not afford it, unfortunately. However I realize that our citizens in the south of the country, particularly those in the capital Gaborone and in places such as Lobatse and Kanye would be in a much better position financially, to access the Northern Cape. I therefore strongly encourage them to visit the planetorium, if there is one, or just the observatory to just sit and watch the heavens in complete darkness. If you were wholly or partially raised in the country side you will probably experience a highly therapeutic environment in the planetorium....

Relative to the population numbers, our country occupies a large chunk of Earth’s surface. There are only about 2 million of us in a country the size of France. Our country was incompetently divided by the colonialists into tribal Districts that were meant to serve the colonialists’ interests and not ours, the indigenous citizens. The districts have been largely retained after independence, save for a few politically motivated gerrymandering adjustments.  For national news broadcasting to be of value to the sparse population, listeners need to have a good idea as to where the events covered in the news are occurring.  Currently, this is not the case. The news readers sometimes do mention the relevant district or the nearest town/village, but this information could be made even more specific by addition of geographical coordinates. I am told that modern cell phones are capable of displaying their geographical coordinates. Botswana Television (BTv) and Radio Botswana (RB) news c...

 The nearest bye-law enforcement office in the Tutume District, where I live, is sixty (60) kilometres away, thanks to BDP’s constituency gerrymandering which they undertook just before they were kicked out of power at last year’s general elections. The city of Francistown is only forty (40) kilometres away. Farmers around my village do not coral their animals at night, resulting in their belled animals creating a cacophony of sleep-depriving noises throughout the night.  I have asked the Tutume bye-law office for a copy of the law controlling noise in residential areas. All I got was that the law is being amended/edited/revised and so they have no copy to give me. I asked them why they don’t visit the villages within their enforcement area and at least explain to residents what they as law enforcement officers understand the law to be, pending that editing/amendment or whatever. The answer was that they can only do that when the law is finally published, as amended! My reques...

There is an intriguing irony in the Tswana language name that our country obstinately uses to refer to the “Bushmen” people. Granted, the name “Bushmen” itself, is derogatory; but it is the name by which Bakhwe are known in the wider world.  Our country officially calls them “ Basarwa ” (singular –“ Mosarwa ”) in the Tswana language, a language derived from, and closely resembling ancient Sumerian language. “ Basarwa ” leaders have pointed out that the name extrapolates to “ Ba-sa-rua ” which in Tswana means “those that do not rear animal stock”. But here is the irony: anyone who owned a water well in our country before the European colonizers arrived, will tell you that his/her water well was dug/constructed by a Mosarwa artisan! So, those who “did not rear animal stock” were the artisans that dug wells for those who did rear animal stock. The irony reveals who the “ Basarwa ” really are: a mixture of Bakhwe and Ba-tsha-ina (Chinese).  This mix of nations is not unique to...

 It is generally accepted that the cradle of humanity (Homo sapiens) is here in southern Africa. It is also established that the World’s most unequal societies are in countries that are here in southern Africa. I wonder if there is any correlation between those two situations. What I do not wonder about, but am quite convinced about, is that massive inequality in the standard of living of a country’s inhabitants leads directly to social instability and conflict. People at the bottom of the social ladder simply never accept that they work less hard than those at the top. That is one reason why the former resort to taking drugs to “ease the pain”; digging up their own infrastructural copper cables to go sell and support their drug consuming habits; picking up arms to engage in cash in transit heists etc.  Southern Africa must remove this stigma of “most unequal” societies. I don’t believe that the road to a just and equitable society lies in “confiscating land” with or without c...

In answer to President Boko’s suggestion that the nation engage in discussions about whether or not to increase our soldiers’ retirement age from 45 years to 62 years I wish to register my emphatic “No, keep it at 45 years, please. Not only that, but actively consider reducing it to be the same as that of professional sportsmen such as Frankie Fredericks, Roger Federer, Serena Williams etc.” Although we habitually see the camouflage-clad pot bellies on our streets, we “civilians” hardly understand just how unfit for purpose our soldiers are, until a situation like the recent Mozambique emergency arises and our soldiers get called to go and fight the insurgents. Then all sorts of revelations come to the surface: many are on Antiretroviral (ARV) medication; hypertension treatment (high blood) etc. The majority of the rest are simply not physically fit to fight a war. Armies, whether guerrilla or conventional are expensive propositions, If we are going to keep an army, it should be a well...

Notwithstanding the fact that someone somewhere knows what happened to little Joshlin; notwithstanding the fact that Kelly Smith is the biological mother of little Joshlin; notwithstanding the fact that one of the three accused is the “biological” father of little Joshlin; Judge Nathan Erasmus has found all three accused guilty of human trafficking, and has imposed life imprisonment on all of them! Interesting precedent indeed AsP Chigala, don’t you think?