Boko denies US$9.4m Moti funding
UDC president Duma Boko took no prisoners this week Tuesday in a press conference, dismissing accusations that businessman Zunaid Moti splashed US$9.4 million for his party’s 2019 general election as “unanchored speculation”.
Among his collateral, Boko’s scalpel claimed his bitter arch-rival, the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) as well as the AmaBhungane publication which he implied could have been bought to discredit him.
Some of the allegations against Boko are that Moti sponsored the UDC 2019 general election to the tune of US$9.4 million through his company Longway Solutions Limited.
It was also suggested that if UDC took power Moti would enjoy control of exportation of beef to Arab countries seeking halal products, have border controls exclusively for 10 years, mandatory emergency medical insurance for Botswana inbound visitors, be appointed as the chief negotiator in renewal process to engage with DeBeers on behalf of government of Botswana, set up a State bank for payment of pensions with government providing the initial capital funding of P1billion.
In response, Boko dismissed these are allegations as mere “nonsense” being peddled against him.
In relation to claims that Moti would have exclusive control to the country’s borders under a UDC government, Boko said that Botswana’s Immigration Act regulates how movement of persons into the country is conducted,
hence that “proposition is fundamentally flawed and nonsensical”.
He said whoever brought it, is either “not smart or was paid too much for him to think. So there are no such”, he said adding that, “this cuts across all the allegations”.
As for Moti negotiating with DeBeers on behalf of Botswana government, Boko wondered, “how does somebody from outside come and negotiate for government; what would have happened, and a single person takes a decision seating from somewhere!”
Boko said that all the allegations are absolutely nonsense. “I do not know the provenance, and I do not know where they originate and why they originated”.
He said if anybody wants to make these allegations, there are forums where “we can test” them, referencing the centrality of courts in settling disputes where “frivolous allegations” are made against others, as happened in the
case of former president Lt. Gen. Ian Khama and Co. who were accused of stealing P100 billion but the matter was thrown out by the court.
“That is the fun of leadership, you get all sorts of insults and nonsense flung at you. You take it in your stride and act with all the fortitude you can muster. Knowing that this is utter nonsense,” Boko said.
As for the assistance he received from Moti to run the UDC’s 2019 election campaign, Boko conceded that they needed a lot of money, money that he did not have and could not raise from the party members.
The UDC president then delved on a philosophical lecture!
“But whatever little I plough it into this thing, not for any return because it is a calling. It is something that boils and bubbles over inside of me, I have to do it.
“I keep putting whatever resource, that is why I may never be a rich man, I do not want to be rich when people around me are suffering. I don’t care about that.
“I am in this thing because I believe that I owe a debt of gratitude to the people of this country. I was able to go through school of course lifted myself on my own bootstraps, but they sacrificed.
“I owe it to this country and I do it for them, however painful it might be. They do what they can; we all do what we can. The businesspeople who are doing business here have been so intimidated and brainwashed.
“They are so fearful, they will not support anybody other than the ruling BDP, not because they like or they want, but they are forced. Some of them are blackmailed, bulldozed as they are phoned and told, to contribute X amount of millions!”. Boko accused the BDP of intimidating all businesspeople and blacklisting all those that it does not understand.
“They tell us. Some of our own people who are businesspeople have BDP membership cards, not because they are BDP, but because they know the economic consequences of not having that card.
“This is what we need to change so that whether you have BDP card or not then it does not matter. So fundraising becomes an area where you must look for your friends, not UDC as such, but they know you, those who trust that you will do the right thing for your people.
“And they give their resources to you because they are your friends. So they assist you and they tell you because that is what Zunaid Moti would say, ‘Broer, you is my friend and I support you. I am not supposed to fund any political party, so I give you my money, resources to you, what you do is your business and that is what happens’.
“Nobody can bribe me. I am unbribeable. Many have tried, they failed. I am driven by a supreme commitment to the well-being of the people of this country.
“So all these things that are alleged have absolutely no substance. So USD10m will have been P100m. Do I look like I have P100m? I have never had access to that amount of money, but what I have had access to is the ability to mobilise T-shirts here and distribute them accordingly and use my own resources, sometimes use my own children’s school fees to fund the cause”.