Lawyer to take Khama insulter to SADC Tribunal

A businessman of Indian origin, Sayed Fakhar Abbas Shah, was flown out of the country last Thursday after being declared an undesirable visitor to Botswana. The lawyer, Duma Boko, says he is assessing different options, one of them being approaching the Tribunal of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The SADC Tribunal was established in 1992 by Article 9 of the SADC Treaty for the development of the regional bloc's law and jurisprudence Earlier this month, Shah was arraigned before the Gaborone Regional Magistrates Court after he allegedly uttered words to the effect that President Ian Khama was of a different sexual orientation than the conventional. Shah was charged with use of insulting language to the President contrary to Section 93 (1) of the Penal Code.

According to the particulars of the offence, on October 6 at Jamal Trading Company in Gaborone, Shah allegedly uttered the words: "I do not f**k ladies just like your President Khama who does not have a wife."