Botswana in crisis: perspective from a journalist in exile :: Mmegi Online

Traditionally southern Africa’s most stable nation, there have been rumblings of discontent emanating from Botswana in the run-up to October’s general election. SIMON ALLISON asked Edgar Tsimane, the journalist who is seeking asylum in South Africa after fleeing Botswana for his life, for his take on what’s going wrong

Right now, Edgar Tsimane should be working hard at home in Gabarone to prepare for his country’s upcoming presidential elections on 24 October. There’s a lot of news around at the moment, and he’s one of the country’s top journalists, a senior reporter with the combative, privately owned Sunday Standard.

Instead, Tsimane is stuck in a flat in Centurion, the nondescript commuter town between Johannesburg and Pretoria, having been granted temporary political asylum in South Africa. Instead of conveying the news, he has become the news - forced to flee Botswana after publishing a story to which his government took exception.

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