Kgosi Thabo Maruje III of Masunga has condemned what he terms deteriorating governance in recent years, which has resulted in rampant corruption and economic looting by individuals who put their selfish interests first to disadvantage the entire nation.
This, according to Kgosi Maruje III is slowly but surely leading Botswana into a nation in crisis. He made the remarks last Saturday when officiating at the Botswana Sectors of Educators Trade Union (BOSETU) cultural night. Kgosi Maruje III decried that the country has lost track in terms of being a good example of democracy and good governance due to some ill-informed decisions by the political elites.
He noted that there is a decline in the quality of leadership almost in all governing aspects of the country be at political, economic and social level, adding that the situation is a worrying factor which threatens peace and tranquility that Botswana has been known of over the years.
Corruption, economic looting
Kgosi Maruje III has noted with concern, escalating crimes committed by individuals who engage in corrupt practices and subsequently steal millions of pula from the nation’s coffers.
He warned that the continuous economic looting will lead to diminishing of the country’s wealth leaving the nation’s coffers empty. He noted that the perpetrators shall be harshly dealt with on a serious note. “Botswana has turned into haven of corruption and economic looting where we see the cases of large sums of tax payer’s money being swindled. This will leads to an economic disaster that we will regret of due to this catastrophe rocking hard the nation’s economic assets”, declared concerned Kgosi Maruje
The youthful leader indicated the newly emerged power hungry trends of capitalism and elitism particularly by some individuals in the local context is a cause for concern of the massive corruption besieging the country. He opined that the rising capitalism ideology led to the unfair or unequal distribution of wealth and resources to the communities, adding that some of the communities don’t get equal access to the benefits of the country’s wealth hence this leads to severe poverty.
A nation in crisis
Kgosi Maruje III said the country is somehow turning into a nation in crisis due to loss of morality, cultural respect and the declining leadership worth by those who are in critical governance positions. “It is without doubt that as a nation we have lost the touch of Botho pillar and the leadership crisis is quite so problematic. We have never known of the leadership tensions that we evidence today, what is happening to this nation that the Dikgosi has made it to be what used to be a milestone of good governance and democracy”, he added.
He said due to this crisis, this shows that the traditional Bogosi institution is needed more than ever in the process for direction and consultation. “Bogosi have been sidelined with efforts of making it sound irrelevant in the adopted modern democratic governing process, and now the importance of this institution ( Bogosi) cannot be overemphasized by being a foot step retracing factor in a fading situation this nation might head to”, Maruje reckoned.
Teaching compromised
The Masunga village leader pointed out that its high time government improves conditions of service for teachers and hailed BOSETU for its efforts of tackling issues that affects the welfare of teachers.
He said unions such as BOSETU are an important civil society stakeholder who ensure that the welfare of teachers is not taken for granted. He called on government to take the teaching fraternity more serious, pointing out that in the Scandinavian countries a teacher is well paid and held in high esteem in society.