Indepth

AFA – just what the doctor ordered

AFA’s maiden flight was 18 years ago. The pilot, Kabelo Ebineng, recalls how he and his crew had to convince people to partake in a novel aviation experience. When the plane had enough passengers on board, it rolled down the runway, shot up into the sky and when it reached its destination, made a smooth landing. Ever since it has dominated the skies while it expands its fleet. Translated that means...

My friend the president

The early years Our relationship is more than friendship; he is more of a brother to me. We must have possibly first met around 1953/1954, even before we became classmates in 1955. I did lower primary at Western School, and he was at Khama Memorial. At the time, schools such as Western, Masokola, Khama Memorial and Central all offered classes up to Standard Four. Those who passed Standard Four would...

The straight talk that broke many friendships

It is difficult to understand how easy President Festus Mogae makes enemies – until he opens his mouth. By the end of his first term at the State House, the list of people who had fallen out with the new president was long, varied and diverse. It included farmers, ordinary voters, BDP strategists, squatters, civil servants and Botswana Democratic Party members of parliament. The accidental President...

Paul Masie caught in the web of power play

When Alexander Forbes Botswana Managing Director, Paul Masie decides the Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund (BPOPF) Trustees meeting diary like he is the guy running the fund, he has reason to believe. For other asset managers, competing with Alexander Forbes and wishing to meet BPOPF trustees, Masie is the man to see. He is also an arbiter of tenders and helps to decide who gets hired or fired...

The general of the red ribbon brigade

In early July 1998, I was part of a two-man team that interviewed President Festus Mogae about his first 100 days in office. We wanted to know what his top three priorities were. They were – he answered – job creation, job creation, job creation. Understandably so, he had inherited an economy in which about 34 percent of the employable workforce had no jobs. We talked about HIV/AIDS, and he made...

BPOPF playing God with pensioners’ money

The team of investigators from Jacques Malan Consultants and Actuarial Scientists appointed to investigate the goings on at the P30 billion Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund (BPOPF) did not exactly expect bear hugs and welcome mats from the Fund officials. Nothing, however, prepared them for the shoddy reception they received: “At meetings, the BPOPF secretariat was extremely rude and disrespectful…...

Why Mogae and Nchindo fell out

President Festus Mogae likes to feign memory loss whenever the subject turns to his erstwhile friend Louis Nchindo. In a favourite bit, he would pretend to have forgotten Nchindo’s name: referring to him either as “Mochindo” or “a certain rich man”. The play-acting provides a clue into the extent Mogae wants to conceal his history with Nchindo from the public. Hardly surprising: for most of their...

The Transition . . .The Smooth Operator!

Although BDP insiders will never publicly go on record over it, there is no missing the consensus that, though not by design, Vice President Ian Khama has created a largely independent power base inside the Office of the President. For a greater part of the time, he exerts his power and influence out of public view, behind the scenes in meetings with officials and cabinet ministers. The Vice President...

Free from politics Sikwane tells it as is

Raphael Sikwane makes a startling statement. “Within the Black society, we tend to be emotionally illiterate,” he says. “We lack emotional education.” In his previous incarnation, as an opposition politician, political correctness would not have allowed him to make such a statement with potential to offend prospective voters. Having shed the political cloak, Sikwane is now what is called a mind...

Ten years of fist-fighting own party Members of Parliament

The discussions at Tsholetsa House in the weeks and days before July 14, 2001 always narrowed down to the ferocious infighting that characterized the relationship between cabinet and the backbench. The BDP administration staffers were worried by the damage the ugly stand off was causing the party. They had watched with anguish and despair as the push for mediation by influential personalities,...

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