�Arms of war found hidden in Kgatleng�

Richard Moleofe | Friday February 10, 2017 11:23

The Greeks are well known for their strings of philosophers. Philosophy is simply the art of thinking. This is one art that seems to have eluded the minds of our contemporary generation of reporters. The way the writer presents this story is not healthy for the security of this nation as it is inflammatory in nature.

Taking into account the political situation of our country, I urge all those reporting on issues of any security nature to be extremely cautious because they might just be sleepwalking the country into an unnecessary conflict.

The reason why I am bringing in this line of thought is because the reporter on the story has allowed himself to be swayed into writing something that in my honest view creates an incendiary atmosphere for our country. Not everything intelligence is the truth as the reporter associates the origins of this information to intelligence leaks.

From my informed perspective as someone who is combat trained and with a wealth of intelligence understanding, there are two possible scenarios regarding the origins of the weapons.

In the first place, it is highly possible that the arms cache was planted by security agents. The timing was just right for the Government to justify their endless military spending. This came a few days before the Minister of Finance and Economic Development could unveil the national budget. The budget shows the largest security spending that this country has ever seen.

In a country where there is a growing number of disgruntled jobless youths with university degrees, it becomes even harder to bring in any reasonable justification for any procurement of fighter jets that will certainly not add any value to the country in as far as job creation is concerned.

In the past the Minister of Justice, Defence and Security has been in great pains trying to justify the plans for huge spending in the current National Development Plan number eleven (NDP11). Therefore the Government will need to bring in every fibre of justification into this public debate. The question that experts in the area of finance and economics have been asking as well as opposition MPs is why the government has its priorities in the reverse order. This is where Government prefers to purchase weapons of war instead of embarking on a nationwide drive to create jobs with the same money.

And who would want to take on a well resourced security system such as that of this country? The opposition would in this first scenario be associated with these weapons of war. The “discovery” of the arms cache was well timed with the announcement of the new political agreement between opposition political parties.

For Botswana’s opposition political parties, with their milestone agreement it has become crystal clear that power will be in their hands come 2019. Fermenting an insurrection would be the last thing in their minds.

From the time of the last general elections, it has been dawning in the minds of the rulers that power will elude them in the next elections. This clarity has come through the loss of numerous bye-elections at all levels of representation of council and parliament.

The next possible scenario regarding the origins of these weapons could be the ANC of South Africa. During their liberation war of independence, the armed wing of the ANC used this country as a staging ground for attacks into South Africa. This was against Botswana’s policy that the country did not want to be used as a springboard. Regardless of this policy, the ANC managed to bring in weapons here and particularly in the south eastern part of Botswana which provides several opportunities of crossing into South Africa.

To buttress this ANC theory, we may remember that in the early 1990s there was a huge discovery of an arms cache in Otse. This occurred when bush clearing commenced at the site of Botswana Police College. This was a trove of assorted weapons of war.

I believe there are still many more arms caches left over after the liberation war of both Zimbabwe and South Africa. It is only that there’s no sufficient human activity in our border area with Zimbabwe to unearth the leftovers from the past war.

To bring the matter closer to home, in the past years as a Gaborone family attempted to renovate their house in Bontleng, an arms cache came tumbling down from their ceiling. After South Africa’s independence in 1994, the ANC no longer had any appetite to follow up on their previous arms caches. It seems they were no longer necessary.

The media should have been invited to the recent arms cache. The fourth estate would have become witnesses to the claim and obviously photos would have been taken. The authenticity of the cache is highly questionable.

However, from the list we get from the cache we come to realise that it is representative of what would have been stashed by an ANC operational cell. From the past arrests made by BDF before 1994, similar weapons made up the list of those carried by ANC operative cells.

The late Linchwe Kgafela who was the Paramount Chief of Bakgatla was often associated with ANC activities. In the past he made claims that he kept ANC armouries within his district. Most probably this is one of the remaining ones.

Why are authorities rushing to the current conclusion where they suspect a possible insurgency? This is something that should get every right thinking citizen worried.

The nation will be holding its breath and awaiting the results of the investigation. And we need to take this matter very seriously because this might be the genesis of our troubles as a peaceful nation.