‘We gave Khama this island’

President Ian Khama is under pressure from village elders in Shakawe to hand back Diseta Island in the Okavango River that he and his brothers allegedly acquired from Tawana Land Board after they evicted a fisherman before constructing a holiday resort on it.

The Chief of Shakawe, Kgosi Mboma Diziro, has also accused President Khama of stealing the island. A junior kgosi says he does not recall any meeting with the land board over Diseta Island. “There is nothing like that,” says the junior chief. “I have been here since 1989.” Botswana Guardian this week heard shocking details of how Khama and his twin brothers, Tshekedi and Anthony, allegedly sidestepped proper consultation with the community that is directly affected by the allocation and muscled out the fisherman. “We have a copy of a certificate which has his (the President’s) name,” says Leboletse Molapisi, the Deputy Landboard Secretary. “It was issued in 1991 bearing his name and those of his two brothers, Anthony and Tshekedi.” But he says of consultation with traditional leaders and communities by the Khamas:  “We do not have records at the moment because it was done long time ago.”  Nevertheless, Molapisi maintains that the land board did not contravene the Tribal Land Act and that no special treatment was extended to the Khamas. However, Section 17 of the Act forbids ownership of an island for residential purposes.

But this publication has so far seen no evidence that the rural fishing community was consulted before or during 1991 when the island was allocated to President Khama and his brothers. According to Molapisi, a notice of allocation was issued for 21 days after the Khamas had applied for the land. “As far as I know, there was no objection to that,” he says. Meanwhile, people who live near the island have corroborated Kgosi Diziro. They say members of the Botswana Defence Force, presumably under President Khama’s instructions, evicted a frail old man and his livestock from the pristine island “years ago”.

Another fisherman, Sedumedi Thamane, says he and others were similarly expelled by the army from a nearby island together with their livestock. Thamane says the land board has refused to give him a certificate for his island. “They told me that they cannot give me papers on the basis of history.” The Office of President reacted angrily to Botswana Guardian questions after this newspaper broke the story in December last year.  “I cannot talk about the issue because you have written the story,” said the Press Secretary to the President, Gobe Pitso. “What is it that you want?” The Senior Private Secretary to the President, Brigadier George Tlhalerwa, responded in similar fashion: “I cannot respond to your questions because it is still the same that you asked in 2013,” he said. “The same questions that you asked were asked during the 10th Session of Parliament. So there is no need to respond to that.” However, Tlhalerwa could not specify the questions that we purportedly raised about Diseta Island during the 10th Session of Parliament. Instead, he attacked the media before saying construction of luxury houses on the island was not worth millions of Pula.  This week the Minister of Lands and Housing, Prince Maele, refused to comment on ownership of Diseta Island in Parliament, saying the information was in the public domain. “Go to Tawana Land Board and get that information,” he said in response to a question from the MP for Selebi-Phikwe West, Dithapelo Keorapetse.

These revelations cast into sharp relief the scale at which certain prominent politicians and other influential people will stop at nothing to acquire the best real estate anywhere in Botswana. In the largely pristine North West District where the flora and fauna evoke images of the Garden of Eden, island grabbing is a major goal of land speculators. The district is home to the world-famous resort town of Maun while Shakawe is famous for its intricately woven baskets. There, as in the case of Basarwa of the CKGR, land is an emotive issue because powerful forces from within and beyond Botswana have combined to deprive helpless communities of it.