I had originally thought about this book as being text plus illustrations but became convinced that the priorities had to be reversed with the text supporting the illustrations. Mind you the chances of getting this book published are probably remote – because outside the government school system, a market for books here barely exists. Nevertheless I wandered off during the weekend to try and find angles on today’s visual Gaborone, which, with back up text, would help make a decent Portrait. Alas, a major road block. A security guard in the Square Mart parking area took me completely by surprise by warning me not to take a photo of the building because the owner didn’t allow it! Amazing. Would he allow a photograph of the cars parked in front of it, or was it just the building itself which was off camera limits? And what about all the people there? Could they be photographed? But then why, in such circumstances, draw people into the area by situating both a major shop and a fuel service station there? The internet describes this particular building as an architectural masterpiece, and one of the most unique in the world. Why then would anyone spend millions getting it up and running and then instruct security guards to stop those who admire it from photographing it? And what on earth is being achieved by stopping one individual from taking a pic whilst being unaware that another hundred or so are doing so from further away? But it then emerged that this totally weird situation may have been generated by the Ministry of Defence which is renting the building either wholly or in part and that this may have persuaded the owner that banning the taking of photographs would be a necessary security measure. Rather obviously, applying security measures and introducing security concerns into any commercial area, let alone into Gaborone’s prestigious central business district is to invite major problems. What would be achieved by ringing the entire cbd with agents all watching out for tourists pretending to talk on their cell phones whilst taking photos of this now rather sad, uncomfortable building. If the Ministry had kept quiet it is probable that only a few would have known or cared that it was renting a part of the new Square Mart building. Un-cleverly, however, it opted to advertise its presence there by introducing a requirement which might make some sort of sense in a military or security area but should have no place in any cbd. But the damage has been done. Where do we go from here? For a start, either the owner or the Ministry needs to quickly inform newspaper editors that there is this embargo on the taking of photographs of the Square Mart building – which none of them could have known about. And somehow tourists and more routine visitors to the cbd should be warned that a significant part of it may not be photographed. But this is of course only a part of the problem. The government has long been renting space in a number of Gaborone’ s major buildings for departments which may or may not have similar security concerns and needs. It is understood, however, that officialdom of one sort or another tends to go all twitchy about the photographing of buildings and places which were, or still are, deemed to be of a significant security nature. But because only few of us can know which Ministry is renting which privately owned building in Gaborone – which cannot then be photographed - the security conscious camera owner will sensibly keep their cameras well away from the largest and most prestigious of the city’s buildings and concentrate instead on its areas of low cost and deprived housing where no arm of government is likely to be renting anything. The Ministry may maintain that this particular issue should not be exaggerated. Perhaps so. But the fact remains that problems will inevitably arise whenever security concerns are allowed to become over dominant and to intrude clumsily into normal civilian space. Have we forgotten that in 1986, a BDF soldier guarding the Gaborone Dam, shot at visiting Minister Archie Mogwe, presumably believing that he was a South African saboteur. By sheer luck, he missed – either because he was a bad shot or had bad training. This one incident may have occurred long ago but it should provide a warning as to what can happen when security needs encroach upon the rights of those using public space. In the end, however, and this weird story does need an end – the focus has to be on the now very imminent 50th anniversary and the need to show some of the very remarkable buildings, including Square Mart, that now constitute Gaborone’s remarkable new skyline.
