Botswana – praag.org

Mugabe rants againts white ‘non-racial’ liberals

Zimbabawe’s President Robert Mugabe on Monday used his farewell speech, as outgoing chairperson of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), to rant against white liberals.

He used the podium at the opening of the annual SADC summit here on Monday, to take another stab at South Africa’s “non-racial” white population.

Speaking at the International Convention Centre in Gabarone, Mugabe recalled how Botswana helped him travel to the founding summit of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now the African Union, in Ethiopia in 1963.

Mugabe, who was handing over the SADC chairpersonship to Khama, even elicited a smile from his usually stern-looking successor, when he recalled the history of his father, Seretse Khama, the first president of Botswana.

Relations between Mugabe and Khama have been strained by the latter’s occasional criticism of developments in the neighbouring country. He was the only SADC leader to question the credibility of Zimbabwe’s 2013 elections which Mugabe and his Zanu-PF won outright, ending the four-year-old dysfunctional unity government between Zanu PF and the two Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) parties.

Mugabe said Seretse Khama, together with Tanzania’s Julius Nyerere, Zambia’s Kenneth Kaunda, Mozambique’s Samora Machel, were some of the founders of the so-called “Frontline States”, the countries, now in SADC, which led the fight against apartheid and colonialism in the 1970s and 1980s.

“Many founders are now dearly departed, but I am glad that Seretse Khama, the father, could see Zimbabwe become independent,” he said.

Mugabe recalled how Khama senior lost his chieftainship because “like all young men, he fell in love”. His “sin”, however, was that it was with a white woman (Englishwoman Ruth Williams), which meant apartheid South Africa exerted pressure on Botswana.

Mugabe said things had changed for the better now, thanks to those who had fought for freedom.

“Look at us now. Look at South Africa. I think they were the most vehement, the whites there, against the marriage. But today it is as if, oh oh, they always were non-racial,” he said in a mock English accent to laughter from the audience.

“Nonsense. Don’t accept that. You see their treacherous behaviour. But I don’t say revenge, no.

“We are a free people, a free people, a loving people, humanitarian. Full of joy, the Africans are, laughing and dancing all the time. But let them not play the fool with us, then the devil in us will emerge.”

In his speech accepting the chairpersonship, Khama joked that over the last year when he was deputy SADC chair, the people in Botswana referred to him as “Mugabe’s deputy”.

He thanked Mugabe for his tenure and praised him for seeing that the region’s industrialisation strategy was adopted under his tenure – at a SADC summit in Harare in April.

The industrialisation strategy is expected to dominate talks at the summit about development in SADC, which reportedly has to find $500-million (R 6,4-billion) over the next five years to implement it.

SADC’s annual budget is about US$80 million.

Source: ANA

Botswana bans sports hunters

The Government of Botswana made it clear on Friday that sports hunters would not be welcome in its country as it lamented the killing of Zimbabwe’s Cecil the lion by American dentist Walter James Palmer.

Government spokesperson Jeff Ramsay said sports hunting had been banned in Botswana and last year the government had also moved to ensure that Botswana’s lions and other large carnivores were not exported to South Africa or any other country for so-called “canned hunting”.

Ramsay said his government had learnt with deep concern about the killing of the collared and protected lion which it understood had been lured from Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park.

“We commend the concerned authorities for acting swiftly and arresting the culprits,” Ramsay said in a statement. “We remain hopeful that they will all be prosecuted for carrying out this unjustified act.

“It is our stern belief that safari hunting of threatened species such as lions has the potential to undermine our regional anti-poaching efforts as it encourages illegal trade which in turn promotes poaching.

“To this end, individuals partaking in such sport hunting expeditions will not be welcome in Botswana.”

Ramsay clarified his statement in an interview by saying that sports hunting had been banned.

“Last year we also moved to close any loopholes in the export of our lions etc for canned hunting in your country (South Africa) or elsewhere.”

He referred to a statement of the Botswana Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism which said: “Botswana is opposed to ‘canned hunting’, the practice in which large carnivores such as lions or other wildlife species are raised in captivity and hunted in small camps with no room for escape or to elude the hunter.

“These animals are often raised in inhumane conditions in close contact with humans. The Government of Botswana is committed to conserving our biodiversity; large carnivores included and does not tolerate cruelty to our wildlife in any form.

“Efforts are underway to strengthen legislation to ensure that this abhorrent and unethical practice does not find its way into Botswana under any guise. Botswana will closely scrutinise all requests to export wildlife to any destination.”

Asked to confirm that all sports hunting was banned in Botswana, Ramsay said: “We are not giving out any licences for sport hunting here. The only avenue for potential abuse would be on game farms, but yes sport hunting is effectively banned.”

Source: ANA

Mugabe blames xenophobic violence on whites

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe laid the blame for xenophobic violence in South Africa on whites, because he said they still owned most of the land and had most of the opportunities.

“It is a matter of the whites keeping things to themselves and the political dispensation brought in by Mandela, (that) did not address the question of disparities between whites and blacks, and this is what must be addressed,” he said at a press conference after visiting the headquarters of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) secretariat here. Mugabe is the current chairperson of SADC.

Mugabe said he was satisfied with the South African government’s response to the attacks. But he added that unemployment in South Africa and white dominance of land ownership made the xenophobic attacks understandable.

“Most of the land is in the hands of the whites who are in a minority…They are not talking in their country of whites being unemployed. It is blacks who are unemployed, this is what they must address first and foremost,” said Mugabe, calling for a second liberation to redress these inequalities.

South Africa should be helped to overcome the problem that former oppressors were still occupying the old positions and the advantages that they allocated to themselves during colonialism.

Countries like Zimbabwe had overcome oppression and inequalities of land ownership.

“But if you go to SA it is a different story, we need to help them, they need another liberation,” he said.

Mugabe and SADC executive secretary Stergomena Tax, dismissed suggestions that his reception in Botswana was inadequate. Some local media put this down to the chilly relations between Mugabe and Botswana President Ian Khama, the deputy chairperson of SADC, who has in the past criticised the lack of democracy in Zimbabwe and differed from SADC when it declared the 2013 elections free and fair.

But Mugabe said he had not come on a state visit and so did not expect to be welcomed with much formal ceremony. He did have a private meeting with Khama over lunch and said relations between the two were friendly and that it was journalists who had created the idea that they were not friendly.

And he shrugged off Botswana’s opinion of the Zimbabwe elections, saying perhaps Botswana had seen certain incidents that others had not seen.

Mugabe had a dig at South Africa’s economic dominance of the region, and suggested Khama shared his view.

“Right now some of us are complaining about the bigness of SA, a giant establishing itself. That is what we discussed at the meeting, that if we are trying to establish our industries they are blocked.”

“For example, pharmaceuticals. We produce some drugs, and they are in demand. We want to send them to SA then those officials in trade say we will only receive them if they come by air. We say no it is much more costly to send them to SA by air, we have planes, yes, but the planes are expensive, we can send them by road, they say no. You see, that is contrary to our free trade principles, there are lots of things we still have to discuss amongst us.”

He also noted that there was a one-way trade of South African beer into other SADC countries.

Source: ANA

Khama’s attempt to appoint brother as deputy fails

President Ian Khama’s bid to appoint his brother, Tshekedi Khama, as deputy-president has been thwarted as Botswana’s government says it will accept a court ruling to counter the move.

Khama, re-elected for a second term last month, wanted lawmakers to vote by a show of hands for his deputy, instead of through a secret ballot.

A show of hands would have exposed any who opposed his choice.

Khama had faced a backlash from within his own party over the prospect of Tshekedi as deputy-president, with parliamentarians accusing the president of trying to create a dynasty.

Botswana’s High Court on Friday that deemed only a secret parliamentary ballot constitutional. “A secret ballot is a hallmark of a free and fair election within our representative democracy,” said Justice Michael Leburu in the Gaborone High Court.

The executive issued a statement late on Tuesday, saying: “Government accepts that the matter has been resolved and wishes to assure the public that it will respect and fully implement the decision of the court.”

Opposition party lawyers say that the same voting process had been in place unchallenged for years, and was used to endorse Khama as deputy-president in 1999 and 2004.

Botswana went to the polls last month in elections that saw the BDP winning with less than 50% of the vote for the first time since it came to power in 1966.

Though the country is routinely held up as a paragon of good governance on the continent, its ruling party has been criticised recently for attempts to stifle dissent.

Botswana president wins second term

Botswana President Ian Khama yesterday saw off the biggest challenge posed by the opposition since independence, winning a second term in power as his ruling party secured a majority at the polls.

His Botswana Democratic Party won at least 34 of the 57 parliamentary seats, AFP reported.

With counting continuing for seven seats, it was unclear if the ruling party would match its previous tally of 41 seats.

An opposition coalition called the Umbrella for Democratic Change won 14 seats, while another opposition group, the Botswana Congress Party, secured two.

Khama, 61, the son of the country’s first president, Seretse Khama, will be inaugurated today.

Friday’s general elections had been billed as the most challenging for the ruling party since Botswana gained independence from Britain in 1966.

Opposition parties had made inroads in urban areas after the formation of a breakaway party, the Botswana Movement for Democracy, in 2010. It is now part of Umbrella for Democratic Change, led by Duma Boko, which won seats in districts that were once strongholds of the ruling party, including in the capital, Gaborone.

“The UDC did well for a new party ,” said party representative Seakamela Motsoaledi.

Struggling Eskom supplying power to Botswana

On Thursday and Friday, Eskom declared a power emergency, but is nonetheless diverting electricity to Botswana while South Africa struggles with rolling blackouts and loadshedding.

Botswana is facing a supply crisis after two units at its only major power plant, Morupule, were shut down when the boilers malfunctioned, the Sunday Times reported. The plant’s output was thus halved and Eskom forced to keep the country running.

Eskom supplied 90% of the shortfall.

“It is a serious problem but fortunately we have our region partners, such as Eskom, with whom we have a good relationship,” Botswana Power Corporation spokesman Spencer Moreri said at the time.

Morupule was designed to generate 600MW of the total peak need of 680MW, but could only deliver 300MW.

Eskom spokesman Andrew Etzinger told the Sunday Times Eskom expected Botswana to be self-sufficient, but because of technical glitches it supplied the country with a third of Morupule’s previous capacity.

“But that would be reduced to zero in the event South Africa was subjected to rotational load-shedding,” Etzinger was quoted as saying.

“Without supply from Eskom, Botswana would have had almost no electricity available, with significant harm resulting for that economy and for that of the region.”

Eskom also supplies electricity to neighbouring countries Namibia, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, and Lesotho.

Botswana deports 96-year-old Zimbabwean

The Botswana government on Thursday defended its decision to deport an ailing 96-year-old Zimbabwean man who is believed to have lived in the country for seven decades.

Facing public outcry over the deportation, Labour and Home Affairs Minister Edwin Batshu told parliament that illegal immigrant Alfred Khumalo had asked to be sent home because he was “sleeping rough”.

Immigration officials found Khumalo earlier this month at a hospital in Botswana’s central region, where he was receiving treatment, reportedly for a stroke.

The minister said the nonagenarian told officials that he was from Kevi village in Zimbabwe and had relatives in Botswana.

“He had a clear mind of his birth place and lineage. He had no means of support and was sleeping rough and living hard,” said Batshu.

But eyewitnesses told local media that the frail old man put up resistance as he was bundled into a deportation van.

The authorities said they had no evidence how long Khumalo had been in the country and that there were no records of any application for citizenship.

Diamond-rich Botswana has seen an influx of immigrants, most recently in the wake of Zimbabwe’s political crisis, which began a decade ago.

Botswana has some of the strictest immigration regulations in southern Africa.

Bush follows Obama to Africa

It’s not often that Africa sees a visiting American president, much less two. But as President Obama travels across the continent next week, so will his predecessor, George W. Bush.

Mr. Bush, who made fighting AIDS in Africa a top goal of his administration, will take a trip there — his third since leaving office — as part of a program to combat cervical cancer. He will leave late next week for Zambia, where he will help refurbish a clinic, and then head to Tanzania, where his wife, Laura Bush, is organizing a forum for African first ladies.

Mr. Bush will overlap briefly on July 2 with Mr. Obama in Tanzania, the last stop on the current president’s itinerary after Senegal and South Africa. There are no plans for the two to see each other, but Michelle Obama has agreed to attend the first ladies’ forum with Mrs. Bush in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s largest city, to promote women’s education, health and economic empowerment.

“It’s coincidental that we have two American presidents on the continent at the same time – in the same country at the same time – but it’s indicative of a continued commitment, which is great news,” said Hannah Abney, communications director for the George W. Bush Presidential Center. “It wasn’t planned. It really was coincidental. But we’re really excited about it.”

Africa was a personal priority for Mr. Bush during his presidency, overshadowed by Iraq, terrorism and other issues but one of the few areas where he drew praise across party lines. His Millennium Challenge program steered billions of dollars in development aid to countries that committed to reform. His President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or Pepfar, directed lifesaving drugs and other care to millions with H.I.V. and was called the largest humanitarian health effort ever undertaken by any country.

As a result, Mr. Bush remains more popular in Africa than at home, and he has taken pride in his efforts there. He devoted a substantial part of his newly opened presidential museum, outside Dallas at Southern Methodist University, to an exhibit about Pepfar. And global health has been a top focus of the former president’s public policy institute.

Teaming up with Pepfar, the United Nations and pharmaceutical companies, Mr. Bush helped form Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon, which is devoted to curbing cervical cancer and breast cancer. It started in Zambia in 2011 and expanded to Botswana in 2012.

Last year, Mr. and Mrs. Bush helped refurbish a clinic in Kabwe, Zambia, where nearly 30,000 women have been treated since, according to his presidential center. They will help renovate and reopen another clinic on July 1, this time in Livingstone, Zambia; a team of four Southern Methodist University students left Friday to work on the reconstruction.

Mr. Bush’s interest in Africa coincides with that of his own predecessor, Bill Clinton, who has spent much of his own time since office on programs to provide help there. “It was a critical part of his administration,” Ms. Abney said of Mr. Bush. “It’s also something he and Mrs. Bush feel personally about. They feel a commitment to the people there.” – NYT

Pieter Mulder says protectorates Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland should be included in percentage black land

An old map from 1922 showing British South Africa and the protectorates

During a debate on the 1913 Land Act today, Dr. Pieter Mulder of the Freedom Front Plus said that the former British protectorates Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland should be included when calculating the percentage of black-owned land in South Africa. All three territories formed part of British South Africa in 1913 and were also administered by South Africa.

Dr. Mulder said: “In the thoughts of many, the surface of these areas was included in the land of 1913. The one gets a 40% – 60% land distribution and even a 50 – 50 depending of how it is calculated. Until after the 1936 Act, there were attempts to incorporate these protectorates into South Africa.”

Here follows the full text of his speech:

“I have two problems with a debate such as this one:

“My first problem is that when we talk about history, all the facts, and not only the facts that suite us, should be placed on the table.

“The core of the objection against the 1913 Act is that it had divided the land between black and white and that only 13% of the land was given to black people. This is a valid criticism about injustices of the past. But it is based upon today’s facts and not based upon the facts of 1913.

“All the maps of 1913 indicate that the Union of South Africa was part of British South Africa. British South Africa in 1913 consisted of South Africa and the three former protectorates, today known as Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. In 1913 there was no question that these protectorates would one day become independent states. Botswana was until 1965 still managed from Mahikeng in South Africa. It was generally accepted that the protectorates would in the long run be incorporated into South Africa. That is why the South Africa Act of 1909, which was approved by the British parliament, provided for the incorporation of these three areas into South Africa at a later stage.

“In the thoughts of many, the surface of these areas was included in the land of 1913. The one gets a 40% – 60% land distribution and even a 50 – 50 depending of how it is calculated. Until after the 1936 Act, there were attempts to incorporate these protectorates into South Africa.

“I do not see it as my responsibility to try and defend 1913. What I do believe, is that it would only be reasonable, if in our criticism, we to try and understand all the arguments and thoughts of 1913.

“Why did this incorporation not succeed?

“Because there also other views. The chiefs of these protectorates seriously objected to the British in London against incorporation. Eventually they succeeded and in 1966 and 68 these areas became independent, which created the current set of facts.

“My second problem: It is not wrong to hold debates on the past. But such a debate is only sensible if something could be learnt from it from the future.

“The past cannot be changed through a lot of talking. That is why the FF Plus does not believe in a better past but in a better future. Little has been said about what we have learnt from the past and how we can succeed with land reform in 2013 without causing famine. Nothing has been said about how food will be provided for 52 million South Africans, of whom 70% will shortly be living in urban areas and this, while we only have 13% of good agricultural land. Little has been said about how we could better utilise the thousands of hectares of communal land.

“It is the future and this debate which we should be having now if we want to make South Africa a better place for all.”

No extradition of murderers from South Africa unless assurances on death penalty

A Botswana national wanted for murder may not be extradited unless that country gives assurances he would not face the death penalty, the Constitutional Court ruled on Friday.

Justice Edwin Cameron said it would be a breach of the statutory values of the South African Constitution to hand him over to Botswana without this guarantee.

He dismissed the appeal by South Africa’s ministers of home affairs and justice, re-affirming a previous judgment which set a precedent in this regard.

The precedent-setting judgment related to Khalfan Mohamed, who was wanted by the United States of America in connection with the bombing of its embassy in Tanzania in 1998.

The Constitutional Court ruled previously that even if there was an extradition agreement between South Africa and the US, he could not be handed over without an agreement that he would not face the death penalty.

Friday’s ruling related to Botswana citizens Emmanuel Tsebe and Jerry Phale, who entered South Africa, allegedly after murdering family members in separate cases. Tsebe has since died.

Phale’s attorney Jacob van Garderen said it was important to affirm that there would not be an extradition to a country where people faced the death penalty, without such an agreement.

“The court again emphasised that the imposition of the death penalty is unconstitutional, in line with the judgment of Mohamed.”

Van Garderen said Friday’s judgment meant Phale no longer faced the immediate risk of being extradited.

“But nothing stops the (Botswana) government from making a new request.”

Bongumusa Sibiya, attorney for a respondent in the case, the Society for the Abolition of the Death Penalty, said the society was pleased with the ruling.

“It confirms the legal position in South Africa,” he said.

“It also means that the country continues to uphold people’s right to life, and that it won’t be taken lightly.”

The death penalty is not allowed in South Africa.

Sibiya said a solution to this “conundrum” was for South Africa to enact legislation enabling it to try people wanted for crimes elsewhere.

According to papers submitted to the court, the entry to and departure from South Africa of wanted individuals was the responsibility of the department of home affairs.

Getting their warrants of arrest and any subsequent prosecution for illegal entry were the responsibility of the departments of home affairs, safety and security, correctional services and justice.

Requests for extradition were directed at the department of international relations, and the decision on whether to extradite vested in the minister of justice.

Murder is an extraditable offence in terms of the relevant extradition treaty which exists between the republics of Botswana and South Africa.

Extradition may be refused if the offence is punishable by death. The treaty makes no provision for either a request for, or provision of the undertaking that was required in Mohamed’s case.

During the course of the case, South African authorities had to consider several other possible developments: that Phale may apply for asylum and therefore be immune to prosecution, and also that trying to deport him for being in the country might look like a “disguised extradition”.

The State had argued that the case had created a situation where fugitives could obtain residence in South Africa, immunity from prosecution, and relative freedom.

It had argued that the South African government had a duty to allow its citizens to be free of fear and its inhabitants to be secure.

At the same time, it did not have jurisdiction to try foreign nationals for offences they committed elsewhere so, as a matter of policy, would seek to return them to their country. – SAPA