BDP’s ‘time to eat is up’ - Boko

Umbrella for Democratic Change President, Duma Boko has sent a chilling warning to Botrswana Democratic Party, that they know who the purveyors of corruption are and that their “time to eat is up”. Addressing the media on Monday in Gaborone Boko said that the corruption and abuse seen across all sectors of government was and is still a function of institutions deliberately designed to preclude any robust oversight and probing accountability.

Accountability, he said, is about a detailed account of the real costs and benefits of any trip or outing by the President and organs of the state to give the nation an “accurate visual and aural understanding of what actual value the nation derives from all these adventures”. He dismissed all the existing institutions as either, weak and tepid in the execution of their mandates or destitute of any ounce of credibility.

Turning to the National Petroleum Fund saga, Boko said these problems and challenges cannot be addressed by way of changing the faces of Presidents while retaining the same system and organisation that brought these problems to the nation. “We know who they are and we will smoke them out. Their time to eat is up,” he warned. He said the ascendance of Dr. Mokgweetsi Masisi of the Botswana Democratic Party to the high office of President of Botswana is but a “frail and fitful palliative” that can only “mollify but not uproot” the causes of all these maladies.

The UDC leader said this was so because all the leaders of BDP, past and present, are complicit in the mess “we have and are culpable without exception”. Boko pointed out that the current problems in the country require systemic solutions with a comprehensive forensic audit of all government institutions to determine what happened and how the controls and processes failed.

However he said the challenges that face the country have been troubling the nation for decades since independence. The country still groans under high rate of unemployment and lack of opportunities for its people. “The health care system is most appalling and deplorable; marked and defined by a demoralised workforce, acute shortages of essential and basic medication as well as chronic inefficiency and wastage. 

“Our education system continues to deteriorate at an alarming pace, spelling doom and disaster for many young people and their families, and wreaking havoc on the whole nation. Corruption and wanton abuse of office have run amok in our country”. Boko said that the UDC is ready and up to the task of liberating this country from the stranglehold of predatory and collusive dealings between the political elites and their handlers in the business community.

He explained that UDC is currently in the process of dealing with all lingering internal matters especially ward allocations and the few constituencies affected by the BMD matter. “All these will be resolved by the end of February. We demand a review of our constitution to correct the aberrations that have resulted in the current mess the country is in”. Boko said they promise to create 100 000 decent jobs in their first 12 months in office.