Where is the evidence- Kaboeamodimo
The recent panic reaction by government to the dossier issued by former President Khama cannot go unchallenged. It was an unambiguous attempt at public relations and damage control via an apparently hurried media briefing that provoked more questions than answers about a matter that has deeply divided our nation.
Three undoubtedly misinformed members of Cabinet took to public media in naked political propaganda clearly calculated to wrestle with former President Khama over issues the Ministers knew evidently knew little about that are at the center of the differences between Excellency the President Dr. Mokgweetsi Masisi and His the former President Lt.Gen.Dr.Seretse Khama lan Khama
The queer utterances made especially by Minister Kabo Morwaeng deserve contempt and ridicule at best.
One Setswana word may reasonably describe Morwaeng's submission aimed at an elder much senior to him in all possible respects makgakga in a nervous display of boot licking, ignorance and sheer lack of maturity. The late Sir Ketumile Masire once lamented that some who were having their noses wiped when Sir Ketumile was toiling to build Botswana had the nerve to disparage him in his retirement and old age!
The astute narration of accolades by Minister Dr. Kwape that Botswana as a Republic earned over the years for democracy advocacy and prudent economic management among others all pre- date the current administration and do include the period when Khama was in office. All our past Presidents have all had their share of criticism for their style of leadership and Khama is no exception.
The painful standoff between our two leaders cannot be reduced to casual freedom-square talk laced with rude aspersions as was done by Morwaeng during the Khama-bashing press conference.
It is the fact of fabricated charges against Khama as confimed in one instance by the Chief Justice, illegal detentions of innocent people part Of the total disregard for Court judgements on government and the chorus of condemnation and rebuke by civic organizations, eminent personalities and successive losses of high profile cases by government that provide evidence reputational damage to Botswana by the current administration, not Khama's dossier.
Similarly so much wastage of public resources in ganging up on the former President when they ought to be grappling with chronic matters of national distress is something that Batswana should pour scorn on. These include food and shelter, ubiquitous health crises, death on public roads, displacement of senior public officers who speak out against wrong doing - specifically corruption, rising public debt and the rising cost of living. It is not hard to figure out that a burst in Khama bashing has to do with the bye-election coming up in Serowe West and the 2024 general elections in which General Khama supports and campaigns for the opposition.
The Dossier and Khama's advanced plan to return to Botswana clearly caused panic and frenzy for those with skeletons to hide who moved heaven and earth to prevent him from returning home for his father's commemoration on July 1st 2023 as he had intended to.
Such acts unmasked any pretentious overtures that have often been used to create the illusion that there ever was any intention to make peace or reconcile with former President Khama.
Nothing is to be gained from trading accusations with a dishonest government and countering endless and deliberate misinformation, It is however time to set the record straight regarding their favourite subject of extra-judicial killings and the specific case of Mr. John Kalafatis
For the record those in the know will tell you that killing of John Kalafatis was an operation carried out by the Military Police at the Botswana Defence Force on the command of Brigadier Peter Magosi, the current Director General of the DIS. The officers involved were tried convicted and imprisoned. Incarceration of convicted persons is a judicial process. A sitting President is empowered by law to grant a pardon if so recommended by a parole board the same way it is done in the case of a death sentence.
On the advice of the relevant board Khama as President at the time approved the recommendation for pardon. No one has ever provided anecdotal evidence on the accusations except for the bandwagon of popular hearsay championed by those that did not agree with Khama. It is as straight as that.
For the record again, the dossier is neither fiction nor hearsay. The annexures to it provide revelations and evidence gleaned from the discredit various sources in Botswana. They all rebuke and current government for interference with the judiciary, erosion of civil liberties, state capture and mismanagement of public resources, rampant corruption, and the collapse of public services such as These are the health care, education and road infrastructure, issues that General Khama has decided to bring to public attention not just in Botswana but the world over, along with his reasons and justification for doing so.
It must be remembered that Botswana is not an island. We all know that the country has neighbours who are affected by what goes on in the country at a political level as we do in theirs. We are a member of SADC, the African Union, the Commonwealth, the United
Nations and many other international bodies that deal with us as they do other countries on economic, social, political and human rights issues
As General Khama cannot use Cabinet Ministers or Government media to address the nation it is only logical that he uses public media and any other platform available to him to reach out to
Batswana and to the international community when he believes he is suffering injustice, political persecution and that his life is under threat, and that any effort to attempt a peaceful resolution of the same internally continues to be rebuffed
Any dispute of issues of raised by the former President ought to be anchored on tangible evidence, as Khama has done with the dossier, cushioned from contest ty the not deliberate misinformation advantage of being in government.
The former President has provided traceable evidence including witness accounts and statements by oversight Institutions such as the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime attesting to culpable abuse of office and corruption.
Government on the other hand has casually mounted a strenuous objection to Khama's dossier without the courtesy of even a shred of evidence of what Khama did or did not do during his term of office, but contemptuous speech and vitriol that is so hearsay and skimpy as to be juvenile
How did the following become Khama's 'unfounded allegations' that government would like the world and Batswana to ignore and/or dismiss?
-Judgement of the High Court of Botswana dismissing as a fabrication the Hubona affidavit on which government anchored its false accusation that Khama and associates stole P100bn and that the alleged theft was facilitated by the Bank of Botswana and the Reserve Bank of South Africa?
Confession / admission by the Chief Justice that the matter was brought to Court on 'fabricated evidence'?
⁃Conflict between and among law enforcement agencies over the handling of high profile cases leading to removal / dismissal of some of the heads of those institutions without the benefit of even a hearing
-Wasteful and un-budgeted expenditure on mystery projects such as the purchase of Tautona Lodge and the purchase of cattle from America while the country has pedigree stock available?
-Inability to provide both basic and critical medicines for chronic illnesses in
Botswana leading to unnecessary suffering and death? Vindictive and whimsical displacement of professional public officers who challenged wrong doing and corruption Emotive and sloppy dismissal of Khama's Dossier Is neither going to change the facts nor help government, clearly the motive for the Wednesday June 28' 2023 Press Conference. Where is the evidence?
In conclusion it is such a pity that the Sir Seretse Khama Day commemoration continues to take place without the presence of his family As such the occasion will always lack legitimacy and suffer from lack of good faith on the part of government