Times Of Swaziland: BORDER RESTORATION COMMITTEE

BORDER RESTORATION COMMITTEE
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BY PHUMLANI MATSE on 25/11/2013 04:23:00


The likes of former army commander Fonono Dube are surely living enchanted lives
which, for the majority of the people, remain a pipe dream.
Not that it is bad to dream, because humans are driven by dreams to reach the
highest possible summits of their potential in order to live wholesome and
successful lives. After all, no one deliberately sets themselves up for failure.
But, as I see it, dreams of whatever nature, have to be realistic for them to be
attained, otherwise they have a tendency to remain just dreams; impossible and
even impractical to attain.
Erstwhile
At the conclusion of the formation of the new government, which included the
appointment of the various emabandla or royal advisory committees, Dube, the
erstwhile army commander, is on record trying to explain why he still believes
he remains an integral part of the Border Restoration Committee (BRC). His
rationale, real or imagined, being that the Border Restoration Committee that
has been responsible for his upkeep is not one of the royal advisory bodies but
rather a project committee tasked with the onerous responsibility of ensuring
the readjustment of the Kingdom of eSwatini’s international borders to include
land that was erroneously ceded to neighbouring South Africa and, to some
extent, Mozambique, well before independence in 1968.
Dube is apparently of the opinion that until the project of the BRC is
accomplished its composition should not be tampered with. He avers, rightly or
wrongly, that his omission from the committee was erroneous since the project
for which it was established has yet to be accomplished. His reasoning is that
until the committee has successfully seen to it that the kingdom’s
international borders are adjusted to encompass the lost land, he remains in
office until the mission is accomplished. What is interesting, however, is that
not long ago the self-same Dube went on record saying that he was taking a
healthy distance between himself and the committee after a number of its members
had succumbed to death.
Apparently, he somehow reasoned that the demise of the deceased members was
attributable to their membership of the BRC rather than natural causes. By
progression, he must have been inferring that had the deceased not been members
of the committee, they would still be alive. Without being privy to what he
knows, it is extremely difficult to interrogate his thinking and apparent
conclusions.
But assuming that Dube is correct in his interpretation of the BRC as a project
committee whose existence is premised on achieving its stated objective of
restoring the kingdom’s borders to their original position, the question that
arises would be over the determination of its progress or its success rate so
far. We know for a fact that millions of the taxpayer’s Emalangeni have been
committed towards the committee’s existence over the years. But what we do not
know is the progress the committee has made since its inception. Unfortunately,
the public has had no insight into the committee’s progress in the event it is
making any headway with its stated mission.
Without having the hindsight of what the committee has achieved so far, outside
being a source of livelihood for its successive members, one is in no position
to ascertain if and when it will ultimately achieve its stated objectives. The
nature of projects, as it were, is that they are scientifically defined through
a set programme of action and activities accompanied by strategies and timelines
that have to be assessed from time to time and that assure it is still on
course.
Unfortunately, the taxpayer bankrolling the activities of the committee is in
the dark about this particular committee’s activities. Perhaps it would be
asking too much of the committee to let the nation into its confidence, even if
this was to justify why it needs to continue to be bankrolled. As I see it, even
if Dube and others were to remain in service to the BRC until it achieved its
stated objectives, there is no telling how many lifetimes this would take; that
is even assuming that its goals will one day be achieved. But given the numerous
attendant international conventions on national borders that this country is a
signatory to, it would seem that the committee is unlikely in any given lifetime
to achieve its goals and that what Dube fears most, the natural attrition of
Homo sapiens, would be unavoidable.
Ultimately, death has no respect for even accomplishable but unfinished
projects, let alone those that are impossible to finish such as the readjustment
of this country’s international borders. Maybe it is time the likes of Dube
gave in and enjoyed their pensions for what remains of their tenure on earth,
without exerting undue pressure on the taxpayer’s purse.