Ian Khama "Illegimate" President??

A BOTSWANA newspaper has threatened President Ian Khama with a counter-lawsuit and a legal challenge to his presidency after he unsuccessfully tried to get the paper to retract two “defamatory” stories.
The Sunday Standard’s lawyers said even if Khama had been defamed, that did not alter public perceptions that he was “nepotistic, corrupt and misuses government resources for personal or family gain”.

The episode has focused attention of President Khama’s increasingly autocratic rule, with human rights groups accusing him of spying on private citizens and showing irritation at public criticism of his heavily militarised government.

Khama, through his lawyers Collins Newman and Company, slapped the paper with a defamation suit, demanding P850,000 (about £77,000) in damages.

The suit relates to two stories published by the Standard. The first is the story of John Kalafatis who was gunned down in front of his friends two weeks ago by Botswana’s military intelligence after allegedly robbing Khama’s sister. The second story questioned Khama's motives in his clampdown on alcohol consumption in the country.

The Standard, through the law firm Bayford and Associates, has in turn raised a counter claim against Khama, warning that if the President goes ahead with the suit, he would have “tacitly waived the immunity conferred on the President of Botswana by Section 41 of the Constitution”.

The lawyers said they also held instructions from the newspaper to “challenge the legitimacy of his presidency”, adding: “His ascendancy to power, it will be contended, was not in conformity with Section 35 (4) of the Constitution, which requires that where the office of Presidency is vacant, the National Assembly shall meet to appoint the presidency within 7 days.

“To the extent that no such meeting took place it is questionable whether Khama is entitled to the rights and privileges attaching to the presidency.”

Kalafatis’ murder has dominated news headlines in Botswana and opened new debates around Khama’s presidency.

In its report, the Standard said Kalafitis had been linked to a series of robberies between January and February this year at Rurets Farms, near Oodi Village in Kgatleng District, where Jacqueline Khama lives.

After Khama’s sister had been robbed, the paper reported, the President “took his motor bike and raced to where the incident had taken place. Later, and after a meeting with Khama, the security agents launched a serious manhunt.”

Kalafatis was gunned down hours later while sitting in a car with friends outside a bar in the capital, Gaberone. The police and army both said they were not involved in the shooting – pointing an accusing finger at military intelligence.

The Standard’s lawyers said: “We do not consider the Kalafatis article defamatory, because it does not bear the meaning which you wish to ascribe to it, nor was it ever our client’s intention to make the insinuation alluded to in your letter.”

The Standard said “even if Kalafatis article bore the meaning contended for by yours, it did not in anyway alter public perceptions which have already been shaped by past publications and which the President has done little to erode.-Advertisement-





These perceptions are that:

“He is nepotistic, corrupt and misuses government resources for personal or family gain. Specifically, that various transactions entered into by the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) and certain third parties, at the time he was commander, were marred by conflict of interest concerning him.

“As Vice President, he was contemptuous of Parliament, the institution to which he was accountable, by failing to regularly attend its sittings without justifiable cause.

“As Vice President he abused Government property by flying BDF helicopters and other aircraft despite repeated calls from the public and the Ombudsman not to do so.

“Under his presidency, security agents have become emboldened to kill unarmed citizens which incidents have not been subjected to judicial scrutiny of any form;

“He uses the Directorate of Intelligence and Security to spy on citizens because he is paranoid about being displaced as leader of the ruling party.

“He surrounds himself with friends, relatives and sycophants as advisors.”

On Khama's war on alcohol, the paper contends the clampdown has nothing to do with societal interests.

"The decision to introduce the 30 percent alcohol levy was not in the public interest and seemed more to be driven by sentiment as opposed to any empirical data," the paper’s lawyers said.

The paper intends to argue that there is a history of alcohol abuse within the Khama family, which the paper claims is the motive behind Khama's crusade to increase its cost and cut consumption.

Thapelo Ndlovu, the Director of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Botswana) said: “Kalafatis' death reminds me of the dark days of the mid-1980s and the early-1990s, when innocent Batswana as well as foreign nationals were frequently shot and killed by members of the Botswana Defence Force in the name of safeguarding the security of the country.

“Admittedly, those were difficult times in terms of Botswana's national security; but the incidents were clearly irrational and excessive, and all the victims innocent individuals.”

The country’s Minister of Defence, Justice and Security said between April 2008 and March 2009, there had been a total of 12 shooting incidents involving the police. Eight suspects were killed over the same period.

The Law Society of Botswana has demanded that all the security officers involved in the shootings be prosecuted, warning the country was sliding towards “anarchy”.

It said in a statement: “Who is being protected, is it the killers or are the killers acting on instruction?


“We know that these killings have caused immense fear in the nation and in our view indicate a dangerous slide down towards anarchy."
NewZimbabwe.com