The day I danced for Colonel Mobutho of Zaire

Richard Moleofe | Friday September 9, 2016 14:45

In those years independence meant feasting. This arrangement of making food available at every kgotla was the best ever because many of the children of that era suffered from serious malnutrition. We were always happy to be invited to the small Gaborone Airport behind the University of Botswana. Years later after becoming a soldier I wondered what had gone into the minds of the planners when they placed an airport next to a university. In fact Botswana Defence Force owes the University of Botswana great gratitude because it was through the efforts and much pressure from Professor Thomas Tlou and his staff that this airfield was later moved to Mapharangwane. There was no way the university could be moved.

Sir Seretse Khama’s government had invited African leaders from as far afield as the Gambia. Though I was just 10-years-old, I can still recall the events of the day and the Presidents who  came to the event.

They all arrived in their private jets and propeller planes. At that very young age I realised I had fallen in love with the winged machines. The parade of the presidents and their wives included Kenneth Kaunda who was Seretse’s personal friend. He was later followed by Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Leabua Jonathan from Lesotho. Dauda Jawara of the Gambia was the only President from West Africa. The fellow went back to his country only to be deposed by his military a few years later.

Seretse had made sure he invited 10 heads of states and governments for the 10th anniversary. The last to arrive was Mubotho se Seseko of Zaire. Forgive me for this because I am writing in retrospect and that is what the country was called at the time. Mubotho arrived in power and much fanfare. When his plane landed, we all stopped dancing. The police and the police paramilitary known as Police Mobile Unit all had their eyes fixed on Mobutho’s arrival.

He arrived in the biggest of all planes. In fact this was the biggest any citizen of Botswana had ever seen in Botswana. This was the Hercules Charlie 130. At the time, Zaire was the only country in Africa which had this airplane in its inventory. Now the biggest plane had managed to land safely on Gaborone Airport’s short run way. Actually we didn’t know that the runway was too short until three years later when Queen Elizabeth II came to Botswana. I remember that day we had made a guard of honour for the visiting monarch for hours at the Gaborone Show Grounds. The Queen and the Duke OF Edinbrough  had come as the guest of honour to officially open the expo.

The Queen and her entourage were in for a surprise. We had seen the plane fly past the show grounds and the pilot had to make the second attempt to land the jet.

The Queen’s plane was to later land at the Francistown Airport which had a lengthier runway. Then she was put in a small plane back to Gaborone. We had no issues with the waiting because food was galore.

Coming back to the 1976 visit of Colonel Mobutho, his C130 got sunk off the runway as the captain attempted to swing it. The aircraft could not be freed until most of its cargo including the Colonel was ofloaded. He walked out like an African king with a leopard skin that he adorned on his head.

Last week as I reminisced on the 1976 independence celebrations, I went into the internet and checked which countries in Africa used the C130 in that year. There was none except Zaire ( now Democratic Republic of Congo).

At the moment, the DRC is the only country in the world map which is shown as a former user of the C130. I would want to do a study of what happened to their fleet. There is a lesson that the rest of Africa needs to learn from what become of Mobutho years later.

The dictator is gone and so are his military assets. When Mobutho arrived, as 10- year-olds we danced and we were oblivious to the fact that we were dancing for a dictator.

The Israelis came to Uganda in June of this year to parade the very C130 they used to rescue their citizens who were held captive by Idi Amin in Entebe. That tells you that this airplane can last for almost eternity. There is something serious that has happened to the C130s of Mobutho.  By the way, Idi Amin the President of Uganda was not present at the event of our 10th anniversary. I am not too sure if Seretse did not invite him or the Field Marshal was fearing for his life as the Israelis were still on his fresh tracks after the Entebe raid.

But it seems that our quest to bring as many leaders as we possibly could blinded the government’s view. This is because we also had Leabua Jonathan from the Kingdom of Lesotho. There were several Basotho nationals who were in exile here and a good number of them were in Tlokweng. That meant they participated in helping us prepare for the big day.

The arrival of the dictator from Lesotho was an insult to the Basotho refugees. Lesotho Defence Force was feared by the nationals as much as the black South Africans feared SADF. In Lesotho they were referred to as masole a ha Leabua (Leabua’s soldiers). No more a national project. Equally, Mobutho was sustained in power by his feared soldiers. They were well equipped and this is the reason why they had a C130 in the days when Botswana did not even own a helicopter.

What is our invitation list now? I trust that 50 years in our walk of independence, our judgement will not be clouded lest we find ourselves at the dinner table with another dictator.