Fresh bid on to bring Khama home
Innocent Selatlhwa | Monday April 8, 2024 06:02
“We found him in good health. His brothers and their families are also in good health.
We consulted with him about events back home and also conveyed to him our wish and that of many in Gammangwato for him to return home to Botswana as soon as possible.
We put to him our resolution for his home coming based on the conviction of many and that of our own in the light of the harassment and destabilisation of Gammangwato by the Masisi administration, as well as the persecution of the family of Sir Seretse Khama,” royal uncle Raebolai Kgamane wrote. Kgamane also stated that their motivation for making this a public issue is on the belief that an injury to one is an injury to all in the spirit of nationhood that Batswana uphold.
This, he said, is besides the fact of his public service record that the nation acclaims for holding the country together regardless of tribal affiliation during his term of office as State President.
They cited a series of alleged offences by the Masisi administration as follows: Fabrication of charges against Sir Seretse's family: Issuing threats on their lives and well-being to force them to leave the country and seek safety elsewhere; attempts to poison Khama; preventing the family from burying their only sister Jacqueline Tebogo Khama, which they could only watch on television screen from outside Botswana; the illegal detention of Tshekedi and Anthony Khama and Tshekedi's wife; preventing and denying Gammangwato the right to consultation over Bogosi (Chieftainship) imperatives; intimidating and threatening to kill the tribe with rifle fire in the name of the President during a peaceful assembly to consult about tribal issues at the main kgotla; prevention of a tribal assembly for Christmas lunches for elders through the barricading of the main Kgotla in Serowe with armed security forces; illegal and unceremonious deposing of the Bagammangwato Tribal Authority, Sediegeng Kgamane, for his refusal to be used to undermine and not pay allegiance to his Kgosikgolo, replacing him with someone they use to effective hostility and vindictiveness against Bagammangwato and their Kgosikgolo; refusal by President Mokgweetsi Masisi to meet with a delegation of senior royal uncles in an attempt to address the differences between him and the former President with a view to bringing about reconciliation; rebuffing similar attempts by Heads of States and former Heads of State including most recently an intervention by President João Lourenço of Angola, the Chairman of SADC. “We cannot as royal uncles remain aloof and helpless in the light of such a mountain of offensives against our tribe and our Kgosikgolo, our son who is a former President of Botswana, and against his brothers - the family of the founding President of our country Sir Seretse Khama. We have therefore embarked on this undertaking to bring our Kgosikgolo back home as soon as he is able to return,” Kgamane wrote. He said further consultation with himself, his brothers and Bagammangwato will henceforth ensue regarding the full arrangements for his return.
This, he said includes the date, point of entry and ceremony to welcome him back. “We are making this public not to boast or antagonise, but for the nation and the world to be our witness. We shall accordingly inform the SADC countries particularly the countries that have hosted Sir Seretse's family while being persecuted in their own country by those in authority. We shall further inform other relevant world bodies including human rights bodies. Cursed will be they that may have the blood of the innocent on their hands,” Kgamane concluded. Khama fled the country whilst in a stalemate with the intelligence agency on how the former’s weapons should be handed to its Sebele office in November 2021. The former president reportedly left Serowe on the morning of November 8, 2021 heading for Gaborone, but his trip was allegedly altered as it took him to his farm in Tswapong, possibly just as a ‘decoy’. He allegedly ended up at the Martin’s Drift border where he supposedly parted ways with his usual security detail. Private security took over as Khama crossed the border into neighbouring SA pressing his own security detail to return home. A helicopter believed to be waiting in one of the farms allegedly airlifted him without following the normal travel protocols, which raised fears that Khama could have skipped the country ahead of handing in the weapons.
The former president, in his response to Mmegi enquiries then, rubbished reports of skipping the country calling the allegations 'hogwash'. “I am in SA and I don’t need permission from anyone to travel,” he told Mmegi, adding curtly, “I haven’t skipped the country. I have travelled to SA as many other people do". Ever since then, Khama has been traversing the world from South Africa on different missions. Previous efforts to bring him home hit a snag and he has since been declared a fugitive. The High Court, delivered the judgment in February through Justice Barnabas Nyamadzabo, declaring Khama a fugitive from justice and asserting that he has no right to bring any action to court. "Similarly, as regards the state's arguments, I uphold the argument as well and find that Khama is a fugitive from justice who does not have locus standi in this and other courts of Botswana during his status as a fugitive from justice," Nyamadzabo said. Nyamadzabo explained that the question was whether Khama ought to be deemed a fugitive from justice, as contended by the state.
He pointed out that in Khama’s averments, he said he ought not to be deemed a fugitive from justice because, according to him, he left Botswana in November 2021, many months before the charges were levelled against him. “He avers further that the reason for leaving the country was because he feared for his life as there have been attacks on his life, including some dating all the way back to 2019, that made it insufferable for him to continue his presence in Botswana at the time,” outlined the judge. Responding to inquiries from Mmegi then, Khama explained that he considered himself a "fugitive from injustice" citing instances like the recent boycott of the Legal Year by the Law Society of Botswana (LSB), examples of judicial capture, and what he claimed was the Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) intimidating judicial officers. He stated that such incidents have been reported to the Chief Justice (CJ), who, however, has failed to investigate.