No Constitutional change for Khama - Press Statement
Correspondent | Tuesday February 16, 2016 12:58
We find it particularly disturbing that a person of Margret Nasha’s experience and past position should stoop so low as to attempt to mislead the presumably less informed with the false suggestion that this country’s Constitution was amended to allow the President to qualify for office.
From the time of his birth the son of Sir Seretse Khama was known not only to his own morafe but, thanks to widespread international media coverage at the time, much of the world a Motswana by descent. Mma Nasha should also be old enough to remember that on the 30th of September 1966 His Excellency, like the vast majority of others then in the country, became a citizen of the newly born Republic.
To ignore these simple facts goes beyond the dirty politics of deceit. It quite frankly is an insult to the intelligence of ordinary Batswana. The content of the amendments to Botswana’s Constitution over the years are, in this regard, a matter of public record that can be easily verified.
We also find it sad that in her reckless and seemingly angry outburst the former Speaker has also sought to snobbishly cast aspersions on the President’s education. While it may be noted that the President, like his predecessors, derives his mandate from the democratically expressed will of the people rather than any academic degree or qualification, his educational path is, nonetheless, also a matter of published public record.
This background of course includes his graduation from the elite Royal Military Academy of Sandhurst, whose distinguished alumni over the past two centuries has included many past and present world leaders, such as Sir Winston Churchill, as well as numerous contributors in other fields of endeavour. In this respect the status of the institution, as well as achievements over the years of its alumni, are well documented.
To quote Sir Walter Scott’s Lord Marmion: “Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.” In this respect we sadly conclude that in her reckless distortions Margaret Nasha has entrapped only herself.
Office of The President (OP)
Gaborone