Parliament Buildings, Gaborone, Botswana.
[photo: : Anka Agency International/ Alamy]
[This is an excerpt from an article in The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs.]
Masisi’s assertion of authority
After ascending to the presidency, President Masisi asserted his authority. One of the decisions that Masisi took in defiance of Khama was not to appoint the latter’s young brother, Tshekedi Khama, as his deputy, choosing Slumber Tsogwane instead. Khama’s desire to have his young brother appointed vice president was an open secret. For instance, according to Khama’s predecessor, Festus Mogae, when Masisi emerged victorious for the position of chairmanship of the ruling BDP during the 2017 congress held in Tonota, Khama and his supporters unsuccessfully attempted to compel Masisi to state in his acceptance speech that he would appoint Tshekedi Khama as his deputy when he assumed the presidency (Mathala, Citation2019). Furthermore, when Masisi ascended to the leadership of the ruling party in 2018, Khama wanted Tshekedi Khama to succeed Masisi as BDP Chairman (Charles, Citation2019). As party Chairman, Tshekedi Khama would be in a good position for appointment as vice-president, and Masisi’s anointed successor, thus ensuring the Khama family retain some element of control over the state. To further disrupt the Khama’ control of the state, President Masisi also fired some of Khama’s close associates, including the Director of the state intelligence agency, Colonel Isaac Kgosi (Mosikare, Citation2018), as well the country’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Roy Blackbeard, who had been stationed in London for 20 years (Sunday Standard, Citation2018). Blackbeard had relinquished his parliamentary constituency for Khama when the latter entered politics in 1998. Furthermore, President Masisi reversed some of his predecessor’s unpopular policies, including the ban on wildlife hunting (Mbaiwa & Hambira, Citation2023, p. 1117; Mogende & Ramutsindela, Citation2020, p. 411), and the introduction of electronic voting machines (Balise, Citation2019).
Fightback from Khama
Upon realising that he had lost control of the state, Khama devised strategies aimed at regaining control. In the first instance, in April 2019, Khama backed one of his associates and long-time cabinet minister, Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi, to challenge President Masisi for the leadership of the ruling party. Nevertheless, this strategy failed, as after losing a court case in which she challenged the ruling party’s decision to exclude councillors from being delegates, Venson Moitoi quit the race, leaving President Masisi unchallenged. Had Venson-Moitoi won, she would as leader of the ruling party, ascend to the presidency of Botswana. In the second strategy, Khama quit the BDP, and encouraged the formation of a splinter party, the Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF), in June 2019. In an interview with the Mail & Guardian of South Africa, Khama stated that his successor was ‘destroying the key tenets of his (Khama) legacy’, and that he was re-entering politics to ‘clean up a mess of his own making’ (Allison, Citation2019). Accordingly, in the build up to the 2019 general election, Khama’s BPF forged a loose alliance with the main opposition party, the UDC. However, Khama’s regime change tactic also failed, as the BDP retained power, winning 38 of the 57 contested seats in parliament, while the UDC got 15, with the BPF and Alliance for Progressives (AP) garnering three and one seats, respectively (Republic of Botswana, Citation2020).
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The alliance between the BPF and the UDC was opportunistic, as the UDC was formed in 2012 to challenge what the opposition termed Khama’s authoritarian rule and abuse of power. In fact, the UDC had previously even accused Khama of eliminating some opponents. For instance, when the Secretary General of the UDC died in a car accident in July 2014, the UDC leader, Duma Boko, told the Mail & Guardian that the car accident that killed Gomolemo Motswaledi was ‘manufactured’, and further stated that there was a ‘hit list’ designed by Khama’s intelligence outfit, the DISS, for purposes of eliminating opposition leaders (Mawarire, Citation2014). Post elections, Khama’s strategy shifted to an international campaign against the regime of his successor. He wrote dossiers to some international organisations, including the United Nations and the European Union alleging his persecution, as well as extra-judicial killings and violation of human rights by the Masisi regime (Ramatiti, Citation2023). The post-election activities were mostly conducted from South Africa, where Khama fled in November 2021 after being requested by the national intelligence services to hand over firearms which he and his former intelligence chief, Isaac Kgosi, were reportedly holding illegally (Pheage, Citation2021). A year later, in December 2022, an arrest warrant for Khama was issued by a magistrate after he failed to appear for trial (BBC, 2022).
In a more recent development, in the first quarter of 2024, Khama toured the United Kingdom, and, among other moves, lobbied some members of the House of Lords to support the UK parliament’s proposed law banning trophy hunting and importation of trophies from African countries into the UK (Smith, Citation2024). The UK and other European countries are the primary market for trophies (Mbaiwa & Hambira, Citation2023). Therefore, the imposition of a ban on trade on trophies between Botswana and the UK, and wider Europe would destroy the main source of livelihood for northern Botswana communities who depend on income from safari hunting. Khama’s campaign made a mockery of Botswana’s conservation efforts and more importantly, it undermined Botswana’s national interests as the country seeks to use the tourism sector to diversify the economy away from diamonds. Khama’s lobbying was fiercely opposed by communities living near wildlife areas, who besides reminding Khama that he did not represent their interests, handed a petition to the British High Commission in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana (Dube, Citation2024). The government of Botswana also dispatched a high-powered delegation led by the minister of Environment and Tourism, Dumezweni Mthimkhulu, to the UK and other European countries to counter Khama and the proposed laws banning wildlife hunting and the importation of trophies (Gabathuse, Citation2024).
Kebapetse Lotshwao is a Senior Lecturer in Politics, Department of Political and Administrative Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana. Bontle Tumediso is Lecturer in Politics, Department of Political and Administrative Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana.
