Hypocritical politicians have short memories!

Dear Dr. Kaelo Molefhe Let me join the chorus of those who have been offering you a word of encomiums on your recent appointment as the country’s lead driver of governance. It is a well-deserved appointment and is given from a pure heart of someone genuinely looking to improve government’s performance in relation to issues of governance and rule of law. Yet I hear your appointment has raised several eyebrows - for whatever reason I am yet to understand! Kana people can be downright petty - I wonder if they really know who you are and why those who appointed you never thought twice before going cap in hand to your doorstep for your services. The haters just don’t know you otherwise they wouldn’t question your appointment. Ba re go botse rona ba re tswang kgakala le wena – those varsity days when we played Mugnum League and A-Series League soccer and you starred for FC Hit & Run as their midfielder. My memory may not be so trustworthy on this one but I think Mara (Tebogo Sebego) was your striker at FC Hit & Run, with Mokgethi Magapa a perennial benchwarmer  although he exceled as a volleyball player at the time. The same varsity days when we called you Suckman thanks to that Jackson roommate of yours who sent you into exile an entire academic year, forcing you to be a squatter at Bigboy’s room. In those days, you were at the forefront of such school societies as Ngwao Boswa, Political Science Association and others where you excelled as a public administration and governance champion. Even in recent times, apart from your role as a partner in numerous governance agencies and organisations, you have been imparting a lot of knowledge on compliance issues through journals, newspaper articles and even through varied radio programmes as well as a senior lecturer at Mmadikolo. Both government and independent groupings have benefitted from your overwhelming intelligence and it should not surprise anybody that you were asked to serve at national level. So they can talk all they like – they will not take anything away from you. I know it is not going to be easy as you venture into that rough terrain where you will be tasked with coaxing state-owned enterprises and the entire civil service into procedural fairness, compliance, lawfulness, good governance and ensuring that due process is observed – but I trust you will conquer. So for now ignore the good-for-nothing invalidators and push your passion as you ensure appointments in government organisations are fair and are not made because ke ngwana waga nkuku or ke Modongwana. Those who handpicked you for this job knew what they were doing. You see, only rare breeds get to be recognised and begged in this way for who and what they are. They are head-hunted and often they even decide how much they should be paid. You are such a breed, along with the likes of the highly-decorated Ndaba Gaolathe with his rare credentials and talents. He too was head-hunted for a government position but chose to stick with your obscure political movement instead of dumping it as would have been required of him. And even if he had accepted the offer from Government and dumped the party, he would not have been the first opposition party president to dump his political movement for a position in the civil service. Former BNF President Otsweletse Moupo is in the civil service; as was previous leaders such as Kgosi Bathoen who also dumped the BNF parliamentary position to take up a position in the civil service as President of the Customary Court of Appeal. I mean, if your own Kgosikgolo could do it, leaving an opposition party as big as the BNF of the time, why would anybody find fault with you when as young as you are, you take a break from a negligible party such as the AP, to take up a lucrative position in the civil service? I just wonder why these hypocrites are all out to attack and label you a sellout for accepting the offer. I call them hypocrites because just a fortnight ago they were up in arms when Dr. Serema, was appointed to serve the country in Namibia, ba re he is being rewarded for leading a campaign ya Domi and that high profile jobs were reserved only for Madomi. Now the president handpicks you for an even better position - based purely on your track record and qualifications as a public administration guru - and they cry that you should not have accepted the offer because you are in the opposition camp? I hear they say the BDP-led government is rewarding you for splitting votes in Gaborone Bonnington North to ensure the loss of Duma Boko.  Hahaha… like really? They give you too much credit - undeserved credit for that matter! Isn’t it you got just over 1000 votes and Anna Mokgethi beat Boko by 2500 votes? So what vote splitting are they talking about? Kana if you were removed from the equation, Anna could have increased the margin from 2500 to 3500. Yes, I know the mindset of those who voted for you - they would rather have voted for Anna, the same way I know many other former BNF and BCP voters this time around chose to decamp from UDC to go with either you or the BDP. And here is the thing: for whatever reason, people had something against Boko – there was talk about his exaggerated confidence, unparalleled intelligence, purported arrogance, and because at different times he inexplicably chose to sleep with the people’s number one and two enemies, Bra Ian and Bra Sid. I have actually said it before that when there is something special that people envy about you, they can just hate you. They hated Sidney Pilane. Boko and Saleshando benefitted from that hatred. Then the hatred was transferred to Boko, and Anna benefitted. Tota e bile even if you had not stood for elections and all your 1 057 voters had voted for Boko, he would have still lost with a big margin of about 1500 - even if all those who voted for RAP had also voted for him. People just did not want Boko. Mo ga di rigging e ne e le go intsha ditlhong and shift the blame for poor performance as a leader. So this talk ya gore the BDP-led government is rewarding you for splitting votes is absurd. And they know they are talking nonsense - just to spite you and make you feel guilty about being where you are. Just don’t let their small talk get into your head – you have moved on with your life, and so should they. We do not progress as a country because of such immature and childish talk which above all else, comes from a deep pit of jealousy and bitterness. They should know gore wena in this instance you chose patriotism over partisanism - a real patriot in deed and not in words as are those calling themselves ‘patriotic’ when we know they are secretly plotting the economic demise of this country. The haters are not happy that you are being called to put order into the chaos that is our civil service - because bone kana they thrived in that chaos they created. I don’t envy you as you get to clean that legacy of disorder. But I know your detractors envy you because of the new lucrative life you will now enjoy. Lefufa! I hear they even have the audacity to ask if you have resigned from your party after your appointment. More to that, I hear they ask if you have now quit at AP to join the BDP. Batho ba! They don’t realise that in appointing you, Sisiboy o mo moonong wa Tswelelopele-Ya-Botlhe – e e sa tlhaoleng ka gore o wa party efe. So even if you do not dump your membership of AP, there is no problem. Akere even Ramaotwana, Moupo and bo Gaseitsewe and Bathoen never dumped the BNF to join BDP the time government employed them? The likes of Chimbombi, Kapinga, Dr. Molutsi and others - were they BDP members while in the civil service? They were always opposition at heart, only that they could not be active in politics as I expect you too will not be. So these guys should just cut you some slack and ba tlogele go go parolela. Where were they when government offered my SRC President James Mathokgwane a position in the civil service and he quit as a BNF Member of Parliament to work at SPEDU? Is he with the BDP now? Among the many who were employed by govy from the opposition parties go na le ene Ramaotwana wa BNF and Cross wa BCP. And talking about the BCP, just recently we saw top dawg ya tsa molao, Busang Manewe, a tsentse opposition ha le ha. The renowned lawyer is BCP through and through and yet he was hired by the BDP to represent them in a case against the UDC. He was never ridiculed for taking up the job. Kana e bile the same Manewe is now in Carter Morupisi’s corner and he will soon be up against the same BDP-led government in court. You will recall that at one point he also represented the BCP in their case against govy. Such anecdotes show gore in the end, our survival comes before partisan politics. Le ene Boko ha Sisiboy a ka re ‘monna wee, ke batla o nna Attorney General,’ oa wela Mminathoko! Of course right now o ka ganetsa a re he can’t - out of only sheer pride and not because indeed he can’t!  So those who cry gore you have betrayed the opposition politics’ struggle baa go tlwaela - and I say this in Bra Ian’s tone and voice the day he said the leadership ya BDP ya mo tlwaela. They should just leave you alone – these hypocrites!