The news has rubbed the neighbouring country the wrong way. When Botswana was looking for support for its candidate for the AU commission chairmanship, Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi, Botswana paid a visit to Zimbabwe where she was received with much kindness and Zimbabwe publicly declared its support for the Botswana candidate.
As President Khama has seen first hand the statistics, violent crimes in homes pepertrated by the economic refugees and our local prisons are full of them. The costs of taking care of those refugees either in holding cells, prisons or deporting them, are no doubt huge. However, the pressures that the refugees have put on Botswana government in recent years are not enough justification for lambasting a fellow head of state on foreign soils. The repercussions of President Khama’s statement about a fellow head of state who has been democratically elected could soon show themselves in a few days time when friends of Zimbabwe, and possibly Zimbabwe itself, boycott Botswana’s 50th anniversary celebrations. We need as many regional leaders as possible, including Rre Mugabe to join us for the BOT50 celebrations.
