Khama never wanted to be President!

Staff Writer | Friday May 20, 2011 00:00

 

President Ian Khama has not addressed the nation on the matter, preferring to pass the buck to his ailing Vice-President Mompati Merafhe. Instead the president has been donating blankets to the poor and visiting the country's jails. In the meantime, emotions are running high and the people have become impatient as witnessed on social networks and commentaries in the media. With what is going one we have decided to reproduce extracts from the March 2009 interview Khama granted CNN International:

'By nature, maybe the reason why little is known about me is because I prefer to maintain a low profile. You may be aware that before I entered politics, I was in the military and it had not actually been my intention to make politics a career.

My predecessor (Festus Mogae) asked me if I would come in as his Vice-President then I came into politics. It set all sorts of alarm bells ringing in my head as to what I should do. But based on the reasons he gave me, I decided to take the plunge and here I am.

On Zimbabwe President Robert MugabeWe withdrew our recognition of him as President and all his political appointees. That is why I stayed away from the SADC Summit last year (2008) because I said if he was going to be there, I could not sit at the same table because he had betrayed what he had stood for during the days when he was involved in the liberation struggle.

We have always understood that the role and responsibility of a government is to run the affairs of the country in the best interests of its citizens - and that's it. And it is not about the leader or leadership, so self-interest is what has also brought about the collapse in that country.

On his leadership styleI will not apologise for being or giving the perception that I am autocratic. If something needs to be done, I want it to get done and should be done yesterday and that's my style, but at the end of the day, it delivers to the citizens, and delivers to their expectations.

I want to be hands on in the way I run government and kept informed on everything that is going on. I ensure that if things are not going right, that there is follow up and deadlines, no tolerance of poor performance.

People should know that when we are in government we are not above people.' Afterwards, the President announced in public gatherings and interviews with media that he is not a politician, he never wanted to be one and that he was forced into politics.

He told Kgotla meetings and political rallies countrywide that he hates politics and never wanted to be one. Even during the ongoing strike, he told a Kgotla meeting in Barolong constituency that he does not want to buy votes and that some 'politicians' were using the strike to push their agenda as they knew that they were going to benefit from the salary increment.