President Khama attracted the wrath of ZANU PF (Zimbabwe African National Union [Patriotic Front]) officials after calling for fresh elections following the disputed and violent 2008 ballot, with Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa accusing the Botswana leader of "extreme provocation". Zimbabwe officials further accused Botswana of giving military training to militias from Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC-T party to help overthrow President Robert Mugabe.
According to leaked secret US embassy communications, Botswana asked the United States to supply various military equipment, fearing an imminent military assault by Zimbabwe. Major General Gobuamang Tlhokwane, then the deputy commander of the Botswana Defence Forces, is said to have approached a defence cooperation official at the US embassy in Botswana on July 14, 2008, and claimed that Zimbabwe had massed military forces on the border region. He asked the US to help with global positioning systems, anti-tank missiles, short range air defence systems, F5 under-wing tank system and helicopter gunships to help Botswana prepare for the expected attack. "The requests for anti-tank missiles and a short range air defence system make sense in the context of the current situation as Zimbabwe has more numerous and more advanced tanks and aircrafts in their inventory than Botswana," the US embassy cable reads.
