Preparation is the epitaphs of good communications.
Nobody is ever a good communicator by chance. They have to work at it – putting into it immense and meticulous work and planning.
Behind every good communicator are many hours of preparation, preparation and preparation.
Cabinet ministers should not be struggling to sell the idea of a Constitutional Court to the nation.
There are many genuine reasons why the country needs a Constitutional court..
Invoking these reasons with confidence and clarity will make our ministers appear much more believable.
For a majority of Batswana, a Constitutional Court is a low hanging fruit that promises to deliver them from the numerous grave deprivations bequeathed this nation by several layers of tribal inequalities.
Take for example the Bobonong / Bobirwa constituency as a case study.
Bobonong / Bobirwa has Taolo Lucas as its Member of Parliament.
Taolo Lucas is not your average politician. He is deputy leader of Botswana Congress Party. BCP is the official opposition.
And he has an expansive presence inside the BCP.
As things stand, the BCP has already made its position known – not just on the Constitutional Court but on the imminent Referendum too.
Lucas is one of BCP’s foremost debaters. He is fearless.
He is a hard hitter.
Like their Member of Parliament, the people of Bobonong / Bobirwa constituency strongly feel that they should have their own paramount Kgosi.
This demand is very fundamental to their identity as a people. This demand cuts across political party allegiances in that area. And this demand generally unites the people.
Naturally these people see themselves as victims.
They say they do not want to have Ian Khama as their Kgosi.
They want to have their own Kgosi who shall be Ian Khama’s equal, sitting side by side with him in the House of Chiefs.
Who is best placed to resolve this complex matter? The answer is simple; the Constitutional Court.
And we are not done yet.
The people in Bobonong /Bobirwa say they want to have a tribal territory of their own.
At the moment their tribal territory is part of Gammangwato, with a headquarters in Serowe.
They add that they want to have their own Land Board that is not subservient to the one in Serowe.
They say they do not have any relationship with Bangwato other than a feudalist master/servant arrangement which cannot be allowed to go on unchallenged in this era.
Cabinet ministers going around the country to justify the Concourt could use the situation in Bobonong / Bobirwa as a template – and deploy it in their meetings around the country. Whether you go to Maun, Okavango, Letlhakane, Tonota, Tutume and many other place, similar situations exist
Cabinet ministers need to find a simple but coherent message on why it is necessary to establish a Constitutional Court ahead of the Constitutional Review process.
A person listening to a minister in Gantsi should receive the same message like another person listening to another minister in Tonota.
At the moment it seems to me like there is no aligned strategy among ministers.
Every minister seems to rely on their own strengths of public speaking and delivery.
It is exactly because they are not talking from a uniform script, that they are now talking in turns.
At another extreme, those against the Constitutional Court have seized on the state of public health to say government should fix public health before talking of introducing a Constitutional Court.
Too often we see ministers falling into the trap, including by saying the Constitutional Court will fix public health.
The onus is now on technical advisors to come up with a plan to rescue the narrative.
One way to do so would be for our ministers to acknowledge upfront that indeed there are problems besieging our public health for example.
And then emphasise that action is being taken. This is a much better strategy than saying the Constitutional Court will address health issues ass some ministers keep saying.
A Constitutional Court does not address bureaucratic bottlenecks like delivering textbooks to schools or delivering medicines to hospitals.
Administrative incompetence is not going to disappear when the Constitutional Court is introduced.
Rather, the Court serves to affirm, interpret and protect the rights.
The next logical step for our ministers would then be to emphasise that it is incorrect to suggest that the intention to establish a Court means that other critical matters such as the health situation, Foot and Mouth Disease, Gender Based Violence, Crime, Corruption, poor infrastructure are not being given the attention they deserve.
Government is a huge animal with diverse capabilities. So, these matters and more are being given urgent attention through various arms of Government.
In strategic communications, this is called ‘deflection.’
Deflection will help ministers regain control of the Constitutional Court conversation by also emphasising that other important enabling tasks also need to be done simultaneously and in parallel. One such is the current engagements on the establishment of the Court pending a wholesale review of the constitution.
The next step would be to focus on why it is so important to have Constitutional Court.
A Constitutional Court deals with interpreting rights, upholding rights and protecting applicants against violations of their constitutional rights. As Batswana plan a wholesome review of the Constitution, a Constitutional Court will help in this way.
There is no question that a Constitutional Court will expeditiously resolve issues pertaining to constitutional rights much faster than a High Court currently does.
Issues so resolved would then simply be noted and rightly put in the final Constitution without having to go all over them during the Review process.
For example, if there had been a Constitutional Court during the Dow citizenship case, it would most likely have taken a shorter time to resolve as opposed to the two or so years it took, thus saving time and money.
From the top of my mind, there are a number of issues that require the immediate intervention of the Constitutional Court. Civil imprisonment on account of debt owing is one such. This affects too many of our people.
In fact, this is so widespread that I still remember instances where a few of today’s ministers were imprisoned when we were still together in the trenches and I had to rescue a few of them. Today they are above it and out of reach of such. But they should not forget those of us who are still within reach of the same fate.
Another thing, ministers have no reason to rush to the issue of death penalty in their meetings.
Too often in their meetings, it the ministers who raise this issue even begore the public.
In my view that is a mistake.