...Of Salutes And Promotions

When assuming government in a country which had become a de facto one-party state for six decades, a lot is expected of you. Furthermore, when you are assuming office from a predecessor who rewarded blind loyalty more than meritocracy, even more is expected of you. 

With great power comes great responsibility, and as a leader, the latter includes exhibiting actions which will survive the scrutinisation of your every action. Promoting a public servant for a mere salute is not one of those actions. 

When Inspector Isaiah Mmualefe saluted President Duma Boko on 30 October at the Masetlheng Polling Station, it was a nice gesture. After all, President Boko was not just an ordinary citizen. He was the leader of the largest opposition party in the land, and it was a courtesy he deserved to be afforded. In that context, it is fair to assert that Inspector Mmualefe was simply doing his job.

So, if Inspector Mmualefe was simply doing a job that was within his expected duties as a police officer, what can we say warranted his promotion? In short, are we applauding a fish for swimming? If so, what precedence are we setting for rewarding meritocracy in this dawn of a new Botswana?

According to the Botswana Police Service, Inspector Mmualefe's promotion, whose recommendation came from the president, was for "𝘦𝘹𝘩𝘪𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩 𝘥𝘦𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘮, 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴." However, according to the Botswana Police Service's own laws of conduct, apart from high-ranking government officials, salutations by officers can also be afforded to "any person who might reasonably expect this courtesy" and President Boko, as previously explained, was the leader of a party which had the second most seats in the country's national assembly so fitted that model.

Now, another argument could be made that any other officer would not have seen the need to salute President Boko since he was technically an ordinary citizen on that day. That is a fair argument to some extent because President Boko was not a member of the national assembly and did not hold the coveted "Honorable" title, making Inspector Mmualefe's salute more about principle than protocol. Going with that argument, that would set Inspector Mmualefe apart as a principled man who willingly bypassed protocol to afford President Boko a salute.

But would that action on its own warrant a recognition over other officers who might have done more than a salute to President Boko on that fateful Wednesday afternoon? That's up for debate.

The crux of the discourse on Inspector Mmualefe's promotion comes down to timing. The new administration is coming after an administration which was constantly accused of rewarding blind partisan loyalty over meritocracy. Rewarding an officer for a salute has shades of what many might associate with the previous administration, which can unease some people who might already be harbouring reservations about the new administration's ability to stay off the path of the previous.

Those reservations are warranted and it is the new government's responsibility to simmer them down. The president's first executive order being promoting an officer who saluted him fails that litmus test of assuring citizens that we have entered a dawn of meritocracy over blind loyalty. It is a small issue compared to other areas where President Boko and his administration will face scrutiny but as the saying goes, it is the small things that matter.