Over at his house, Koma resumes the story. He alleges that during Sir Seretse Khama's presidency, each and every one of his letters was opened and read by the Special Branch before being resealed and put in his mail box.
If this was done in a clandestine manner, how does he know about it?
"I had sources within the postal services. They are the ones who told me. Instructions had been issued to all postmasters that my mail had to be opened by the police first," he claims.
He got to confirm that, he says, when he received a letter that had been mailed to him from Lusaka, Zambia.
"The letter said 'as we discussed here in Lusaka President Seretse Khama should be eliminated because he is an Uncle Tom'. I was in Mahalapye at the time and I later got a call from Seretse who asked: 'Uncle (that's what he would jokingly call me) what's going on down there?' Seretse had obviously seen the letter but did not seem bothered by its contents. I got to learn later from a white Special Branch officer stationed in Mahalapye that the state had established that the letter had been written by the South African police who, knowing that my mail was intercepted by the local police, wanted to frame me so that I could be arrested for plotting to kill Seretse. I had no problem with South Africans but they considered me a communist threat," Koma recalls. Interestingly, Koma does not think that the late president meant any harm. He says that Khama merely wanted to understand what sort of person he was and whether he posed any national security threat to the country. Politically, they were both on the same wave length as he had found out when they were in the United Kingdom. On occasion, Koma says that he would visit Khama at his house just outside London.
"He got to know me very well and we discovered that politically, we thought more or less along the same social democratic lines. So even when he had secret police follow me, not once did I feel that my life was threatened. I don't think that he saw me as a national security threat either," he says. He says another story that demonstrates Khama's goodness to him is that of a group of African National Congress (ANC) refugees who called at his Mahalapye house in the dead of night asking for refuge. A colleague of theirs had switched sides, they told him, and they feared that he would lead the apartheid government operatives to them.
Koma says that he spirited them out of Mahalapye to his cattle post where they laid low until, in his words, "they grew fat". All along, they had kept a low profile but somehow their new body weight caused them to become more daring. One day, Koma says that he got a call from a police officer saying that he - Koma - had 'visitors' at the police station. "Visitors from where? I asked him. 'Your cattle post, the officer replied'. I knew then what exactly had happened. Once more Seretse came to my rescue. He told me that the matter had been referred to the Refugee Selection Committee and suggested that in the meantime, I should accommodate the refugees in my house at Mahalapye and not hide them away at the cattle post," Koma says.
President Festus Mogae and Foreign Affairs Minister Mompati Merafhe hotly deny that Koma or anybody else has been spied upon.
Speaking at the Botswana Democratic Party youth league congress last Saturday, Mogae told his audience: "Some individuals have actually imagined that listening devices have been installed in their houses. I wish to assure you that there is no truth to any of these allegations. No implantation of any devices has either been authorised or installed, nor any intelligence operative in the police or in the military to spy on anybody. Even if we had such devices, which we do not, there could never be either need or justification for such action as Batswana are very open people."
Writing in Mmegi last week, Merafhe categorically stated that neither the late president Khama nor his son, the current Vice President Ian, have used either of the country's intelligence services against Koma, a member of any political party, ruling and opposition and whatever their position. "Politicians, including the president himself, have no contact altogether with the services and cannot use them," Merafhe said. Koma maintains though that it is standard practice in Africa for the government to keep tabs on members of the opposition.
