Ian Khama: I am going back to Botswana

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After two years of self-imposed exile in South Africa, former Botswana president Ian Khama says he is ready to head home. 

Khama has claimed that there were attempts on his life, which prevented him from returning.

He has written to the United Nations special rapporteur requesting an urgent investigation into “ongoing threats” to his life and safety, but this has yielded little result. Now Khama says he must go back and face “whatever is waiting there for me”.

The rift between Khama and Botswana’s current President Mokgweetsi Masisi, who was ironically hand-picked by his predecessor, has widened in the four years since the incumbent took office.

Sources have however said that there have been attempts at initiating a reconciliation. 

This week Botswana publication Mmegi Online reported that Masisi had adopted a more reconciliatory tone, urging members of his party to desist from fuelling hatred and dislike between him and Khama. 

Video by Lesego Chepape

“It must be noted that I wish that one day I and my president Ian Khama could talk and forgive each other. He is still my president. I supported him fully during his tenure,” Mmegi quoted Masisi as saying.

“I do not believe in hate and today I encourage our members to desist or stop spreading hate speeches or telling untruths because it causes war among us.”

Khama told his team that he had received a number of calls and messages from people informing him about Masisi’s remarks.

“Previous attempts by others with whom I cooperated have all failed. So, in response to his public statement, let me publicly respond by saying that I have asked my brother … Tshekedi Khama to return to Botswana and meet with President Masisi in order to commence the process of reconciliation in ours and the nation’s interests,” a statement from Khama reads.

In an interview with the Mail & Guardian in Johannesburg this week, Botswana’s former leader said his country had seen a slide backwards, adding that he was to blame for choosing Masisi to take over from him in 2018. 

Video by Lesego Chepape

Though reconciliation has been touted, Khama said there had been no further action. There are still more than a dozen charges hanging over his head, including the unlawful possession of a firearm. In December a warrant of arrest was issued for his detention, but South Africa has not received a request for extradition. 

“Even if they put in the extradition request, I’d welcome it. Because that court process would then allow me to expose everything that’s going on … we would go to court [and say] this is why I’m not going back to the country. This is what’s happened in the country,” he said.

The M&G sent Botswana government spokesperson John Dipowe questions on the reconciliation, extradition requests and the firearm case, but had not received a response by the time of publication.

All this has happened as Khama readies himself to take on the position of president of the Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF). Khama joined the BPF — a breakaway from the ruling Botswana Democratic Party that has seen some election success in its strongholds — in 2019 as a patron.

“Constituencies which had been held by the ruling party since independence, more than 50 years ago. They lost for the first time ever. That was my crime,” he said.

In 2024 Botswana will hold a general election and Khama has vowed that BPF will contest, possibly in coalition with other smaller political parties, to “right what I did wrong”.

In April BPF will hold its elective congress and Khama said he would find out from the BPF national executive committee “what role they would like me to play”.

“Recently, I received a delegation from members of the party asking me to stand as the party president of the BPF. Up until then, I said I wasn’t going to stand. But then the president of the party is also the chief campaigner. And so it’s something I’m considering,” he added.

Khama said during by-elections smaller parties had signed a memorandum of understanding to support each other against the ruling party.

Video by Lesego Chepape

“Going towards the national election, there’s that same feeling that there must be an arrangement between the parties, and we should agree on a presidential candidate,” he said. “And then they rally behind that person. But I would not be available to be state president again, I’ve done my time.”

Khama said his role now was to contribute towards a flourishing democracy for Botswana because it was “my fault in bringing about regime change in Botswana” — another reference to his hand picking Masisi as his successor.

Khama has filed court papers to set aside the warrants of arrest against himself, former head of intelligence Isaac Kgosi, suspended police commissioner Keabetswe Makgophe and Victor Paledi, a former deputy permanent secretary in the ministry of youth, gender, sport and culture. They each face more than a dozen counts relating to the possession of unlicensed firearms. 

According to the court papers filed in August 2022, Khama argues that the decision to charge him and the others is inherently reviewable because aside from “being overtly politically and maliciously motivated”, there are no reasonable grounds for its success. He insists that all the firearms and ammunition in question are registered and licensed. 

“I further state that the first respondent’s [the director of public prosecutions’] decision to prosecute the second applicant [Isaac Kgosi] and I is a clear abuse of process because it was made under the influence and/or coercion of third parties, to wit, the DIS [Directorate of Intelligence Service] operating under the office of the president,” reads the court filing.