Had a certain printing press in Pilane been used to print the Sunday Standard story about President Ian Khama being involved in a car accident, there would now be a huge question mark hanging over its fate.
Following the publication of the story, the paper’s editor, Outsa Mokone, was detained. Although he was subsequently released, he has since been charged with sedition. In terms of the Penal Code, the latter is considered an offence against public order. The sedition provision says that any printing machine which has been used or is reasonably suspected of being used in the printing of seditious publication “may be seized by a police officer pending the trial and conviction or discharge or acquittal of any person accused of printing or reproducing seditious publication.”
Mokone says that security agents who arrested him also wanted to raid the Pilane printing press and he had to tell them that the paper is actually printed in South Africa. Still unconvinced that was the case, they went to the paper’s offices in Commerce Park to demand proof. Mokone says that at this point, the paper’s general manager showed the agents copies of the invoice from the Johannesburg printers as well as those of the print orders.
The law says that before ordering the forfeiture or confiscation of a printing machine, the court shall be satisfied that the machine was the one that was actually used for printing such publication.
However, the plan to have the paper printed in Pilane by Tsodilo Printers is near fruition. The latter is the sister company of Tsodilo Services, the company that publishes the paper. Last year, Tsodilo Printers began construction of a printing press in Pilane. However, due to construction delays, the machine is not yet operational.
According to Tsodilo Printers’ managing director, Prof Malema, the Media King printing press that has been installed at the facility is the only one of its kind in Africa, capable of producing a United Kingdom-like quality newspaper.
The machine weighs 100 tonnes, is 30 metres long and 3 metres wide and has a lifespan of 40 years. It was bought from Machinery Care of Walwijk, Netherlands whose engineers came to Botswana to do the installation. The press can print up to 40 000 copies per hour for a 32-page tabloid and half that number of copies for the same period of time for a broadsheet.
According to Malema, Tsodilo Printers representatives had to do an extensive benchmarking exercise across various countries in three continents to decide on the most suitable system for their operation.
The United States has expressed very strong disapproval about both the detention and prosecution of Mokone and it is likely that if the Pilane printing machine had been used to print the edition that the state deems seditious, the stand-off between the two countries would be even more intense. The Pilane project is being sponsored by the Media Development Investment Fund in the US which invests in independent media around the world and has, since 1996, “provided $130.9 million in affordable financing to more than 90 businesses in 32 countries with a history of media oppression.” In the southern African region, the Fund has also sponsored media projects in South Africa, Lesotho, Zambia and Zimbabwe. When complete, the press will be used to print Sunday Standard and its sister publication, The Telegraph, which is currently printed in Gaborone. The machine is expected to greatly improve the distribution and circulation performance of both papers. Malema said that unless it gets more business, Tsodilo Printers will employ and maintain a 43-member staff for the first three years.
The Penal Code says that when any person is convicted of printing a seditious publication, the court may, in addition to any other penalty, order that the printing machine be confiscated for not more than one year or be forfeited to the state. Such order may be made “whether or not the person convicted is, or was at the time when the publication was printed or reproduced, the owner of the printing machine.” A machine so forfeited shall be sold and the proceeds paid into government coffers. When an owner, printer or editor is convicted of publishing seditious material, the court may, in addition to other penalties, forbid the publication of the newspaper for a period not exceeding one year.
The sedition law leaves no missile unlobbed because it also targets all those who sell, offer for sale, distribute or reproduce material considered to be seditious. Section 51 (2) also attaches criminal liability to “any person who, without lawful excuse, has in his possession any seditious publication.” Lawful excuse in this particular case is disavowing knowledge that the publication was seditious when it came into one’s possession and that upon learning that, surrendering the publication to the nearest administrative officer or to an officer in charge of the nearest police station. This would mean that technically, all readers who are still in possession of the Sunday Standard edition in question have also committed a seditious offence and are liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years.
Botswana inherited its sedition laws from its former colonial master, Britain, which introduced them in the 15th century. Around this time, a cultural movement that is otherwise known as the Renaissance was sweeping through Europe, threatening the very survival of monarchies. The Renaissance was aided in no small part by the printing press which sped the dissemination of ideas, some of them a little too radical for the powers-that-be.
It was also during this period that the English monarchy introduced a court that later became an instrument of oppression. The Star Chamber, as it was called, made criticism of the monarch or the government a criminal offence and was used to silence political dissent. Its sedition laws also targeted printing presses because they could be used to churn out publications that the establishment deemed to be seditious.
The Mokone saga has attracted international attention and in reaction to it, one commentator on the website of the main government-owned newspaper, The Herald, says a lot with very few words: “Hehehee Botswana… we are laughing in Zimbabwe!”
