Khama: The ruler of Botswana
Thalefang Charles | Thursday October 23, 2014 17:09
President Ian Khama was born on February 27, 1953 at a village called Ewell in Surrey, United Kingdom. He is the first-born son of Seretse and Ruth Khama (nee Williams).
His siblings are first-born and sister, Jacqueline, and his younger twin brothers, Tshekedi and Anthony.
Ian was born while his father was in exile after his controversial marriage to a white woman sparked a bitter discord within the Bangwato tribe.
The discord extended to the Apartheid regime in South Africa.
Seretse and Ruth were exiled to England in 1951, and in 1952 the new Conservative government declared the exile permanent.
Seretse returned to Botswana after England forced him to renounce his chieftaincy upon his people’s request.
Ian’s status as firstborn son of Seretse made him the rightful heir to the Bangwato throne, something that Seretse initially disapproved of.
He finally bowed to pressure on March 8, 1979 and draped Ian with the lion’s skin coronating him as the Paramount Chief of Bangwato.
Education
Ian arrived in Botswana for the first time in 1956 when he was just over three-years-old after his parents were allowed to return as commoners. It is said that he started his schooling in 1960 when he was seven-years-old in Serowe. It is not clear which school in Serowe he attended. He did his secondary education at White Stone School in Bulawayo, South Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). It is during his time in Bulawayo where Khama told Guardian UK newspaper this week about his earliest racist memory when a dentist told his mother in his presence that he “doesn’t attend to non-white people”. The dentist was referring to Ian.
Khama then moved to Waterford School in Swaziland. It is not clear why he was transferred from Bulawayo to Mbabane. However, Waterford School prides itself on its notable alumni since South African struggle stalwarts like Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Desmond Tutu sent their children there.
Khama returned to Waterford in 2012 to officiate at the school’s 50-year anniversary where he even put on his original school blazer and tie.
From Waterford School, his educational history is not defined as it mentions only European cities saying he moved to “Geneva, Switzerland, and Chichester, England to further his studies”. It is unclear what and where he was studying and whether he even graduated.
After his ambiguous ‘further studies’, Khama began his training with the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, England. It is also said that he had a stint with Ikeja Police College in Nigeria. In 1974 to 1975 Khama did flight training in Gaborone and thereafter Antwerp, Belgium. It is, however, also unclear where exactly this training was offered. It is probably because of his foreign studies and the fact that his mother was an English woman that Ian never mastered his Setswana. Even after 16 years as an active politician, his Setswana is still very poor.
Army
Khama’s professional career in the army begins when he joined then Botswana Paramilitary Police Mobile Unit in 1973. Four years later, when government established the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) in April 1977, the president’s son was appointed deputy commander with a rank of Brigadier. At 24-years-old, he was the youngest Brigadier in the world.
Mompati Merafhe was the Commander of the 132 men that comprised the new Botswana army. Two years after enlisting in the army, Ian was officially coronated as Paramount Chief of Bangwato in his army uniform. This made him Paramount Chief of his Commander because Merafhe is a Serowe resident.
Khama still loves the army. He often visits the barracks to do some obstacle courses. Khama was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General and appointed Commander of Botswana Defence Force in 1989 when Merafhe retired to join politics. After 25 years in the force Khama made a surprise announcement on December 16, 1997 that he would retire from the BDF on March 31, 1998.
Politics
On April Fools’ Day 1998, when vice president Festus Mogae succeeded Sir Ketumile Masire as president, Khama was appointed as the new vice president. The shock appointment was a recommendation by a South African consultant, Professor Lawrence Schlemmer, who concluded after his first study in 1994 following the dismal performance by the BDP in the general elections that, Ian Khama was the saviour of the party.
Khama began his political career with a controversial sabbatical leave. He was only sworn in as vice president on July 13, 1998 after easily winning his first parliamentary elections in the Serowe North constituency.
Roy Blackbeard gave way for Khama in the constituency and was appointed ambassador in the UK in a deal that saw him continuing to be the longest serving leader of a Botswana mission.
Khama made it clear that he does not like politics, even going to the extent of calling his Members of Parliament “vultures” when they moved for a salary increment.
His style of leadership where the leader is stronger than the organisation eventually rocked the BDP and caused the unprecedented split in the party. Some from the Barata-Phathi faction broke away to form Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) under the leadership of the late Gomolemo Motswaledi. Motswaledi, who was the BMD secretary general, was banished from the party after challenging his suspension from the BDP.
In the 2014 general election Khama chose no running mate in a calculated move to consolidate absolute power and align all BDP members behind him. He is not keen to face political opponents in debates. He has demonstrated this by his poor attendance of Parliament over the years, as well as his recent snubbing of presidential debates hosted by private radio station, Gabz fm.
Presidency
Khama became President at the end of Mogae’s term and was sworn in on April Fool’s Day 2008. He appointed his old boss in the army Merafhe as vice president. Although he promised no radical changes in his first address as President, Khama said his roadmap for Botswana would be underpinned and characterised by the principles of Democracy, Development, Dignity and Discipline.
He later introduced another D-worded principle, ‘Delivery’ in 2009 after his first presidential elections.
Although he expressed his explicit love for democracy during his first address as President when he said, “I am a democrat. I have always believed in democratic ideals, and joined the military to defend this democracy,” Khama’s leadership has been described by many as ‘autocratic’.
He had declared many decrees bypassing the old Setswana system of ‘Therisanyo’ where policy and decision-making were not knee-jerk reactions made out of emotions in kgotla meetings at rural areas.
The President clamped down on alcohol by cutting liquor trading hours and introducing over 45 percent levy.
The media also accused Khama of stifling free speech when his administration introduced the draconian Media Practitioners Law. Khama was once quoted saying he does not read local private media while he was still an army commander. In his six-year rule, Khama has not addressed a single press conference.
His hatred for the private media reached fever pitch in 2014 when he detained a newspaper editor on sedition charges after a report alleging the President to have been involved in an accident at night while driving alone. The journalist who wrote the report skipped the country to seek asylum in South Africa.
The notorious Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) headed by his trusted friend from BDF days Colonel Isaac Kgosi stands out as part of Khama’s ugly legacy. The DIS has, together with its boss, who is only accountable to the President, is implicated in a number of alleged crimes. News reports of corruption by the agency and some of his senior cabinet members raced between courts and Parliament accused of corruption.
Khama introduced programmes geared to eradicating poverty. Although condemned by the opposition he has promised that he will end poverty in Botswana by 2016. He has made it a norm to appear on private media every week giving out to the poor.
If Khama wins tomorrow’s elections his third term will expire on March 31, 2018.
Personal Relations
Khama has never married but he was once engaged to marry Nomsa Mbere, a dentist, but said he “chickened out”. He has spoken out in interviews as to why he is failing to find a partner, saying his love for control worries him concerning whether he could juggle politics with marriage. He was, however, this year rumoured to be dating a local physiotherapist, Tshegofatso Mabeo, after they were photographed twice out on a date in Khawa and Makgadikgadi Pans.
Khama has broken ranks in an ugly public spat with his distant cousin Tawana Moremi, Batawana Paramount Chief. He is the godfather of Moremi’s son and heir to the Batawana throne, and has recently paraded his ex-wife at a BDP rally where Domkrag members took turns to insult Moremi.
His known friends are men he served with in the army. Kgosi, who is the head of the all powerful DIS, and Thapelo Olopeng, who is currently contesting for a parliamentary seat, tipped to hold a key Defence and Security portfolio if BDP wins the elections.
Lifestyle
Khama is a very adventurous and outdoorsy person. He has gone on record saying, “Books are boring”. He is said to be a fitness fanatic who goes to gym at 4:30am and sleeps before 9pm.
He loves quad bikes, cycling and sometimes he takes the wheel in the presidential vehicles. He has even appeared in BBC’s Top Gear television programme while playing in the Makgadikgadi Pans with his small army of quad-bikes flying in his powerchute. He took CNN’s Nkepile Mabusa of African Voices into the deep dark caves of Gchwihaba in Ngamiland District.
He occasionally canoes in the Okavango River at Shakawe where he has an island resort. He also races with powerful 4X4 quad bikes in the Kgalagadi sand dunes every year at his brainchild event, Khawa Dune Challenge.
One of his famous news stories that caught the attention of world media was when a cheetah at the Sir Seretse Khama Barracks in Mogoditshane wild animals enclosure wounded him in 2013. Khama is also an avid football fan. He has been an active supporter of the Mogoditshane Fighters, Miscellaneous in Serowe and Okavango Football Clubs.
He has also served as the vice chairman as well as patron of the Kalahari Conservation Society and an Honorary Member of the Game Rangers Association of Southern Africa.