Government should stop undermining Batswana’s intelligence. Granted, we are a docile society, but the government should be the last to take unfair advantage of our humility.
It honestly did not require a parliamentary question to clear the mist on who was constructing the Mosu airstrip as well as on whose land it was being built. In accordance with the provisions of its public service charter, government should never shy away from telling the public the truth, however painful.
Government, through its chief spokesperson Dr Jeff Ramsay, initially marshaled a concerted defence discrediting plausible media reports surrounding the controversial airstrip.
Dr Ramsay further denied the Botswana Defence Force (BDF)’s involvement in the construction of the controversial airstrip.
Whatever wrongs Dr Ramsay intended to conceal will be a debate for another day. It now turns out through revelation by the Minister of Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Mokgweetsi Masisi, that President Ian Khama is not the only beneficiary of such a grand scheme or government practice.
The minister explained in answer to a question by opposition legislator Dumelang Saleshando that such privilege was extended to all former presidents at taxpayers’ expense.
Masisi explained further that the founding president, Seretse Khama, was extended a similar favour or privilege when an airstrip was built on his Tuli Block farm.
The same privilege was extended to Sir Ketumile Masire on whose farms three airstrips at Ghanzi, Sekoma and Kanye where built. Past immediate president Festus Mogae was extended a similar favour when a helipad was constructed on public land for his use in Palapye.
As the public has not been furnished with the reasons underlying such developments or decisions, it is only reasonable to deduce that government generosity might have gone too far as to contravene prevailing laws governing benefits accruing to a sitting president, including his predecessors.
When Masire was about to retire, parliament passed a law governing his retirement benefits. We believe the same law was applied when Mogae handed over the baton to Khama.
From Masisi’s unambiguous answer, what surprises most is the revelation that parliament approved the costs of the airfield through the security and intelligence budget.
This brings us to the fundamental question of whether parliament explicitly knew that by approving the security and intelligence budget, it was by extension approving construction of the controversial Mosu airstrip on Khama’s land.
If parliament was aware, why is Saleshando only now seeking such clarification? Does parliament know what the budget for security and intelligence entail? Was the opposition in parliament misled into approving the said budget? Was the opposition outnumbered when the budget was put to vote? If it was not, and if it was aware, why did it not walk out in protest? Were the rest of the Members of Parliament (especially from the ruling party) duped into approving the security and intelligence budget which by extension endorsed this particular project?
Was parliament furnished with the list of developments under the security and intelligence budget? Did parliament sleep on its job when it approved the budget? Can we now be convinced that all the other buildings on Khama’s Mosu compound were funded from his personal finances? Saleshando should have asked further if the buildings in the compound had not been financed by the unsuspecting public through the same budget.
Given all these and other related questions, we implore parliament to unpack the security and intelligence budget before approval lest they unknowingly approve controversial and dangerous projects that have potential to pit our beloved country against unsuspecting citizens and other nations.
We make this plea on the back of recent media reports that the Directorate on Intelligence Services (DIS) has channeled over P57 million in tenders awarded to companies associated with DIS director general Isaac Kgosi and his principal, President Ian Khama.
If DIS is all out to engage in such ‘corrupt practices’, is there any hope that this country will ever be cleansed of corruption? If corruption in this country is pioneered from the high echelons of power, what hope is there that the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) will win its fight against corruption?
While government is still mum on this issue, it is our ardent hope that the nation will in the near future be fully appraised of the true circumstances.
