It is an open secret that Vice President Mompati Merafhe will not take over from Khama after 10 years. There is a school of thought that Merafhe will only hold the fort until 2014.

Initially it was felt that Merafhe would only serve for a period of not more than two years after last year’s general elections and then the heir would be identified. But a Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) insider said Merafhe will serve the whole five year term as VP. The only reason why Merafhe might not continue as the Vice President after 2014, might have something to do with his advanced age. In 2014, Merafhe will be close to 80 years.

President Khama appointed Merafhe as his deputy following his inauguration in 2008. He re-appointed him to be the Vice President after last year’s general elections.

Before Khama made his announcement, it was not clear who was going to be the Vice President. Other names that were bandied were those of former cabinet ministers Jacob Nkate and Neo Moroka. The two men are now out of the picture.

But Khama played his cards close to the chest and only made his pronouncement on the final day.

On the eve of last year’s general elections, there was also speculation that Khama might appoint the vice president who is going to succeed him. Names that were mentioned included that of former Minister of Health and World Health Organisation (WHO) official, Joy Pumaphi.
But Khama still decided to stick by the man whom he shared army barracks with. Now the big question is, who will take over from Khama?

According to some theories, one of the likely successors to the throne could be Ramadeluka Seretse who is also Khama’s cousin. Seretse is currently at number three in government and is a man who is known to be close to Khama. Just like Khama and Merafhe, Seretse has also served in the army and retired at the rank of Brigadier.

According to the grapevine, the idea was that Khama would hand over to Seretse who would at a later stage pass on the baton to Khama’s younger brother Tshekedi Khama.

The intense fight last year between the barata-phati and A-team factions of the BDP was said to have been fueled by this succession plan.
Members of the barata-phathi faction were said to have been opposed to this succession plan. The Barata-phati have also made it clear that they are against automatic succession.

Another candidate who could get the nod is, the Minister of Wildlife and Tourism, Kitso Mokaila who is also one of Khama’s confidants. Like most people in Khama’s inner circle, Mokaila is also a former military man. Mokaila might also be favoured because he is from the South. To balance the equation, Khama might be forced to choose a vice president from the South. Since the time when President Sir Ketumile Masire who came from the South, stepped down in 1998, all the presidents have been from the North namely; Serowe. Botswana has had three presidents who were from Serowe, including Khama’s father, the late Sir Seretse Khama.

During the era of Khama’s predecessors, it was always clear who would take over.

When former President Masire, announced that he was going to step down, it was logical that his next in command, Festus Mogae would take over. There was a smooth transition as Mogae took over from Masire.

The same thing applied when Mogae stepped down.

But President Khama has proved to be his own man and even his leadership style is different from those of his predecessors.

As the BDP leader, his emphasis has been on discipline.
But for Khama, indiscipline seems to mean when someone differs with him. Since he took over, Khama has marginalised members of the barata-phati faction and even excluded them from his cabinet. Since Khama took over, more BDP members have seen themselves facing disciplinary action. This has led to some party members being banished. The BDP leadership is still on a witch hunt.

It was during Khama’s reign that BDP factions reached their peak. But ironically Khama was roped into politics to quell factions in the BDP.
Last year, when the BDP held the Kanye congress, Khama was sympathising with one of the factions.

He was even campaigning for members of the A-team, under the pretext that he was supporting women. Khama said he would not find it easy to work with Daniel Kwelagobe who was contesting the chairman’s post.

Khama and other BDP leaders like Nkate and Tebelelo Seretse attacked Kwelagobe in public. But they were never subjected to any disciplinary action. After the Kanye elections, Khama did not want to hear anything about the barata-phathi victory. He diluted the central committee with A-team members and took unilateral decisions.

Even his party went for the general elections more divided than ever before.

KASANE – President Lt Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama has told Chobe residents that the nomination of Kgosi Moffat Sinvula of Mabele to Ntlo ya Dikgosi was based on his capabilities.

Addressing a kgotla meeting in Pandamatenga, General Khama said he was not looking at geographical locations when he nominated Kgosi Sinvula.

The President was responding to complaint from a resident who told the meeting that the office of the district commissioner had not responded to the letter they had written on the issue.

The residents had written a letter to the district commissioner querying the appointment of Kgosi Sinvula and Kgosi Mmualefhe Mmualefhe from Chobe enclave west to represent the area at Ntlo ya Dikgosi, saying that left their area unrepresented.

Residents felt that another leader should have been chosen from Chobe Enclave East.

General Khama further told them that he saw nothing wrong to appoint the two people from the same area, adding that he and the vice president were also from Serowe and still people did not complain about it.

He said special nominations were done based on the capabilities of individuals not places where they came from, saying the nationa will suffer a great setback if appointments were to be done based on places of origin or geographical locations.

When I appointed Kgosi Sinvula as a special nominee to Ntlo ya Dikgosi I did not consider that another area representative, Kgosi Mmualefhe comes from Kachikau which is near. There are various reasons that I considered.

The president further urged the community to support those who had been nominated so that they were successful in their endeavour to serve the public.

He told the meeting that he had instructed the minister of local government to increase the number of nominated councillors with more women and the youth.

For his part, agriculture minister, Mr Christian De Graaff told the meeting that the Pandamatenga infrastructure development project would start next year October, saying the projects would include internal roads and drainage system.

Mr De Graaff said his minister was working hard to make it possible for farmers to use genetically modified seeds in Pandamatenga so that they were able to compete with other countries.

We are looking at protocol to ensure that next ploughing session the genetically modified seeds can be used.

Regarding the of qualified birds and floods that destroyed crops in the farms last year, he said the government had agreed to help farmers with the cut-off date after which sorghum and millet would not be allowed in the lands as a way of avoiding the quilea birds.

Youth in the Pandamatenga also complained that they could not access youth programme in the area, citing shortage of land in the area as the problem.

Botswana site

GABORONE – Ministers have declared their assets to President Lt Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama.

Minister for Defence, Justice and Security, Mr Ramadeluka Seretse said at a media briefing, Monday, that the move was a response to calls from some quarters that politicians should declare their assets.

The first person to be concerned about the lavish life of ministers, he said, should be the President.

He said the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) had been performing fairly well in combating corruption through prevention, investigation and public education.

Botswana instantly became a destination for benchmarking and learning anticorruption initiatives, he said basing on recent visits by Zimbabwe and China.

We are emulated by many, both those who are in the process of forming their own anticorruption organs and those who have been around long back before the DCEC was even an idea.

The minister said as much as there was need for the DCEC to be transparent in its dealings, the media should understand that peoples names are involved and as such release of information had to be done cautiously.

Mr Seretse regretted that they have had instances of people complaining about leakage of information from the DCEC, a scenario that is often complex because several people were involved during investigations.

He said it was against this backdrop that the DCEC needed to be cautious when disseminating information as it was expected to maintain highest confidentiality.

Minister Seretse also stated that law enforcement agencies should not work against each other in the fight against corruption and crime. It should be a combined effort.

He said corruption was rampant in government as many cases have been unveiled, which have resulted in prosecution and conviction.

Next year, he said, government would bring experts to assist in particular skills impartation for DCEC personnel.

In her remarks, DCEC director, Mrs Rose Seretse said Botswana continues to be rated the least corrupt country in Africa and one of the least corrupt in the world.

However, the director said this did not in anyway mean that there was no corruption in Botswana.

In fact, corruption in Botswana is becoming increasingly complex and challenging.

The biggest challenge this year has been in the area of procurement followed by land and fraud in the form of cheques.

Mrs Seretse said there was also a growing trend of cheating in examinations.

She also thanked the media for being watchdogs of her department adding that some of the cases they were investigating were picked from the media.

Botswana Site

The children thronged the Presidents home in large numbers on Christmas Day.

President Khama gives Serowe children gifts on an annual basis on behalf of the Lady Khama Charitable Foundation.

Councillor for Serokolwane, Mr Molefhi Setlalekgosi praised President Khama and his brother Anthony, for their generosity.

He said the duo followed in the footsteps of their father, Sir Seretse Khama and mother, Lady Ruth Khama who used to give to the needy on a regular basis.

He said President Khama has been ensuring that children have a joyous Christmas through donation of gifts on an annual basis.

Siele noted that all International Civil Aviation member states are expected to have complied with the issuance of machine readable documents by 2010.
The document will be issued out next year in January, to regional, district and Botswana missions and embassies.  The passport is to be machine readable and should be a secure document.
Giesecke and Devriet Company was engaged to develop the e-passport and  border control system.

In other countries, people would celebrate this as a small step towards transparency. But small steps, though often commendable, can mislead because democracy does not grow incrementally, as some in our political leadership may argue. While democracy is a continuing project, there is nowhere – in theory of practice – where the teaching is for democracy to be done in bits and pieces.

Granted it is important to proceed with deliberation and with critical attention to the result, but being so methodical does not necessarily mean being slothful and tardy. Yet what the Executive is doing is not even proceeding with deliberation; its pure theatre.

We shall not celebrate this new regime in which men and women prostrate themselves before the President to confess their sins and sing his praises.

The first problem we have with this is that a motion calling for a declaration of assets has been debated in Parliament and those who were present then know that the new regime is a mockery of the principles that informed the very idea.

Assets are not declared for the mere objective of letting the Boss know where you may be compromised. A Register for a Declaration of Assets, in progressive democracies, is meant to give the public confidence in their representatives by presenting them as honest men and women who have nothing to hide.This is for the compelling fact that elected representatives should be in office to serve the interests of their constituencies and the wider interests of the nation.

While it is a fact that ministers are appointed by the President and are therefore answerable to the President, that should be the case only to the extent that the President is him/herself answerable to the public that is the ultimate for both.

For the President appoints the cabinet on behalf of the voting public, hence there could be no benefit to the public when cabinet ministers declare their interests to only the President. Such an arrangement is but a private rendezvous behind closed doors consciously calculated to keep the public ignorant. But how does an ignorant public vote properly?

Secondly – and more importantly – where does the President declare his/her interests? In a regime in which the President is not expected to declare his interests in a public register, the purpose is reduced to an exercise in futility.

In such a cynical situation, what should the public make of the proverb that a fish starts rotting from the head?

It makes us shudder, to say the least. And that is the reason we prefer to start from the head: President Khama must simply lead by example and declare his assets and interests to the public.

Today’s thought

“Politics, as the word is commonly understood,are nothing but corruption.”

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They warned against waging attacks against the President.
Some of the senior officials who spoke in defence of Khama were the Minister of Defence, Justice and Security, Ndelu Seretse and the Minister of Infrastructure, Science and Technology, Johnnie Swartz.

Swartz said Khama did not attack anyone in his speech, including the opposition. He said Khama’s speech was all-embracing and appealing for unity.

He warned Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) Members of Parliament (MPs) not to behave like opposition members.

He said the BDP lost some constituencies due to internal feuds. However, he said, he does not know how the party lost the Kgalagadi South constituency to the Botswana National Front (BNF).

Swartz said it is the BDP members who could destroy the party.
He continued that there is fear that people are being expelled from the civil service, but he does not know what the hullabaloo is all about. “We should be asking why they are being expelled,” he said.

Seretse also expressed concern about attacks on Khama. He called on other politicians to respect Khama as the head of state.

He said if there is need for a constitutional review it should be done with dignity. Seretse said it is not true that Cabinet ministers are against a constitutional review.

He said the Constitution must be reviewed for valid reasons and not just because some people have an axe to grind. He compared the constitution to a foundation of a building.

He said every time when there is a crack in the ceiling, “you do not dismantle the foundation”.

He told the House that the government is looking at the formulating the law reform process.

Seretse called on MPs to represent the views of the voters and not their own interests.
Seretse also took a swipe at politicians who are promoting tribalism. To him, tribalism is a scourge that could wreck the nation. “Tribalism is an enemy of the nation.” He said if people started identifying themselves by their tribes, it would cause chaos in the nation.
Seretse also spoke about nation-building.

Regarding security, the minister said Khama has made it clear in his speech about efforts that will be taken to combat crime.

Contrary to views, he said, Batswana are content about the security measures that are taken to protect them.

He said the government has indicated that the security agencies are there to protect the nation. He noted that if any security agent took the law into his own hands, he would be brought to book.

Seretse said they have disclosed that cases of people who were killed by security agents are being investigated. He revealed that they have referred some of the cases to the prosecution division.

As for the fight against stock theft, he said there are magistrate courts, which are exclusively dealing with such cases. There is also a police section, which is devoted to tackling stock theft cases.

One of the legislators, Slumber Tsogwane, asked him why all the stock theft cases could not be handled by the customary courts. The MP’s concern is that people feel that the magistrate courts are not competent to deal with stock theft cases.

But Seretse said every suspect has a constitutional right to have legal representation. He said stock theft cases could not be confined to the customary courts because the suspects would be deprived of legal representation.

In any event, customary courts have also been trying stock theft cases, the minister said. He spoke about plans to introduce livestock experts who will assist magistrates when presiding over stock theft cases.

“I am cautiously optimistic,” Khama told AFP on the sidelines of a rally in the capital’s oldest suburb Naledi, a day before elections are to be held in Africa’s most stable and longest running democracy.

The ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) has had a difficult campaign as rifts between party factions erupted in a bitter public spat when Khama suspended his party’s secretary general Gomolemo Motswaledi.

“These problems (factionalism) have been with us for the last 20 years. I am just determined to make sure we don’t go another 20 years with the same problems,” said Khama.

“That is why I decided that we must take a stand against any unruly elements in the party that promotes factionalism.”

Despite the party rifts and criticism over Khama’s authoritarian leadership style, the BDP is expected to easily win the parliamentary elections, handing Khama the presidency, in the face of a weak and equally fractured opposition.

The BDP has been in power since independence in 1966. In its four decades of democracy the diamond-rich nation has become Africa’s success story, with one of the world’s fastest growing economies.

Seven parties and 15 independent candidates are contesting the elections, with only the BDP, the main opposition Botswana National Front and smaller Botswana Congress Party in the presidential race.

Botswana’s governing party, in power for over four decades, is expected to prevail over a divided opposition in these parliamentary elections despite added pressure on leaders in the world’s largest diamond-producing country amid the global recession.

Kogomoditse Leshomo, an election official in Gaborone, the country’s capital, said she had seen no problems.

“I’m happy with the way things are going,” she said.

Voter Gasenna Mohuptsiwa said she woke up at 04:00 – two and a half hours before polls opened - to get to her northern Gaborone voting station. She said she first voted in the 1970s, and was happy with the way the country has been run since independence. But she wouldn’t say for whom she was voting.

Politically and economically stable

“I’m happy that I’m able to vote for my future and my country,” she said.

Several voters in Gaborone said they were voting for the opposition but would not give their names.

Even the opposition, which warns that one-party rule is being entrenched at the expense of democracy, doesn’t expect victory against a party that has been in power since Botswana won independence from Britain in 1966.

The Botswana Democratic Party won 44 of 57 seats in the last elections held in 2004, with the remaining 13 seats split between the Botswana National Front and the Botswana Congress Party.

Botswana, one of Africa’s most politically and economically stable countries, is the size of Texas and sparsely populated. It might be best known in the West as the setting of Alexander McCall Smith’s “No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” novels and HBO TV series.

Considerable support

Botswana suffers from high levels of poverty and unemployment, and the worldwide recession has dampened global appetites for its diamonds. The country’s GDP shrank by 20 percent in the first quarter of 2009, according to the 2009 African Economic Outlook.

Former President Festus Mogae stepped down last year even before the end of his second term, when the constitution required him to leave office. That allows his vice president, Seretse Ian Khama, to run as an incumbent in Friday’s vote.

Khama, a former army commander, is the son of the country’s first president after independence and has considerable support because of his late father’s popularity.

The opposition, however, has tried to paint Khama as a divisive figure whose military background did not prepare him to lead a democracy.

According to the Independent Electoral Commission, a record 723,617 people have registered to vote – 243 833 of them between the ages of 18 and 29. Botswana has a population of about 1.8 million.

Botswana President Ian Khama reviews an honor guard after being sworn-in as the country’s forth democratically elected president in Gaborone. Khama has been sworn-in as Botswana?s fourth democratically elected president, pledging to diversify the country’s diamond-dependent economy.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

Speaking at his inauguration ceremony after his Party the Botswana democratic Party (BDP) won 78 percent of parliamentary seats, Khama said “We must use this opportunity to count our blessings, and remember that many societies find peace and stability elusive which we take for granted; that horrendous atrocities have fallen upon many countries; and that economic ruin has resulted from poor governance which places sectarian interests ahead of national interest.”

“We must forever remain vigilant and guard our treasure of democracy jealously.”

Khama also acknowledged that his government faces challenges such as unemployment, poverty, crime, HIV and AIDS, shortage of shelter, declining social values, environmental degradation and global competition.

“I am happy to report that we have put in place a number of policies, programs and projects, measures and initiatives to tackle most if not all of them and will continue to do so in the coming Term.”

“These measures cover a whole range of the development agenda. Particular attention will also be paid to agriculture, education and skills development, health, housing, youth empowerment, sports,t he arts, diversification and sustainable use of resources”, Khama said.

He vowed that he remains committed to turning around the agricultural sector so that production levels of both livestock and crops are increased significantly.

“Through commercialization of areas where we have comparative advantage, provision of infrastructure, as well as facilitation of credit, the agricultural sectors’ contribution to GDP as well as our food security should improve.”

Khama also outlined that skills development remains critical, adding that there is the need to move with speed into a knowledge society. “Communication, science and technology will be key in this. More use of ICT for service delivery, coupled with strengthened research and development, should not only give us greater efficiency, but opportunities for diversification beyond diamonds should be enhanced.”

“Innovation and creativity, especially amongst the youth will be encouraged and promoted. Through communication infrastructure development, access for rural areas and international connectivity, as well as telemedicine will be greatly improved”, Khama declared.

On minerals which have been the backbone of the Botswana economy, accounting for over 60 percent of GDP, Khama said considerable investment will continue to go into mineral beneficiation, as well as infrastructure development in all sectors including transport, energy and water.

Khama won the presidential election held on Friday.