An intolerant and vindictive government
Mmegi Editor | Friday January 22, 2016 14:42
After 16 years in the country, Salbany, one of the finest legal minds in the country, was thrown out of the country like a piece of garbage. His sin is holding a different view from the ruling clique. Salbany’s work and residence permits expired in November last year and was not immediately renewed by the Immigration Department for reasons that were not made public then. Following the development, Salbany was forced by the circumstances to leave the country, with the hope that eventually sanity will prevail and he would be issued work and residence permits.
It is clear now that sanity did not prevail. At the recommendation of the country’s spy agency, the Directorate of Intelligence Services (DIS), Salbany’s work and residence permits were not renewed. Reason? He is a security threat. How is that possible that after 16 years studying and later practising law in the country, Salbany is suddenly a security risk?
Well, it was obvious that with DIS involved in the vetting processes, Salbany was not going to be granted work and residence permits. It was also very much obvious that the not so sophisticated and paranoid DIS would eventually conclude that Salbany is a “security threat” just to kick him out of the country. Why would DIS label Salbany a security threat? Why would the DIS and the Immigration Department refuse to grant Salbany work and resident permits?
Well perhaps the answers lie somewhere in what happened at the corridors of Botswana Gazette some time in May 2015. Salbany then prevented the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime agents from entering the offices of Botswana Gazette to confiscate computers. He argued then that the warrant to confiscate the computers was not in order. This altercation earned Salbany and three members of the paper’s editorial team brief police detention. Perhaps the government was further incensed by Salbany’s activism. As a human rights and media lawyer, Salbany’s track record speaks for itself. It is common knowledge that Salbany, through the law firm Bayford and Associates has represented not only the media, but also other members of the society who were badly treated by the government.
We agree with Salbany’s employer that there are no valid reasons for the rejection. The decision not to renew his permits has nothing to do with issues of security, but more about the intolerance that putrifies in the Khama administration. Since President Khama came to power in 1998, foreigners who do not hold similar view with the ruling elites have been deported and their residents and work permits not renewed.
It is sad that Botswana has reached a point where dissenting views are not tolerated anymore. With these developments, it is safe to conclude that the hypersensitive President Ian Khama is suffering from a chronic state of paranoia.
Today’s thought
“He (Khama) believes in a closed society and I believe in an open society. I feel bored in a Botswana that deports foreign nationals every hour and at any given opportunity without giving reasons as to why.”
- Festus Mogae