Khama Orders Pressmen To Disappear

ISAAC PINIELO
Correspondent | Monday July 12, 2010 00:00

 

As he stepped onto the podium to give his speech, he started off by ordering photographers, who were pointing cameras at him, to disappear from his sight. 'Tswa mo tseleng ke batla go bua le batho, tswa mo tseleng, ga o utlwe!' Turning to a cameraman from the state-owned Btv, he said: 'Nyaa, yo o siame'.

He then went on to explain the purpose of his visit to Tati East constituency represented by Samsom Moyo Guma who has left BDP to join the breakway Botswana Movement for Democratic (BMD). He told villagers that their MP has abandoned them and they should rely on their councillors for assistance. 'If you have a friend and they abandon you, it is not nice,' said Khama, referring to Guma Moyo. He stated that the MP chased himself from BDP because of his deeds. He said in the BDP, he is the referee and that when one does not abide by the rules of the party, he gives them a warning and when they repeat the offence, he eventually chases them away. 'As a referee if I spot an offside I blow the whistle, and if that offence is repeated, then I produce a yellow card. If the foul persists again, then I would be forced to produce a red card. So if that happens don't say you have been sent off by the referee. It is you who have sent yourself off,' he said. Khama dismissed media reports that nine out of 11 BDP councillors in the Tati East are likely to resign from the party.

He accused the media of conniving with the opposition parties to try and destroy him and said they would fail because he is focused. 'We have spent close to 44 years of peace in this country so these people, together with the newspapers are getting bored and want to disrupt the peace that has been prevailing,' he said.

Meanwhile, when giving the closing remarks, a BDP official, Botho Ntirang said if he had the powers, he would order that people should stop buying newspapers because they report falsehoods.