Friday, February 7, 2025

How money has taken innocence out of Botswana’s politics

A lot has been said about a recent report by Amabhungane Investigative journalism linking the Umbrella for Democratic Change and its leader to a raft of deals with a South African billionaire businessman Zunaid Moti. For UDC to have been able to strike such deals it demonstrates that in 2019, there were rich people, and these are people who care a lot about their money, who were genuinely convinced that the UDC was on the verge of winning state power. Save for the fact that Moti is himself a notorious and shady character, there is not much in that report that he would be ashamed of.

For him it’s all in the name doing business. And it’s all game. Of course Batswana would be shocked at the supposed deals entered into by Moti and UDC leader Duma Boko. Context is important. The same people would even be more shocked were they to learn of deals entered into all over the world by those in power all in their name and that of the nation. Any businessman willing to sponsor an election campaign would be too happy to make business deals for himself with the politicians they are sponsoring. For as long as the political playing field is uneven politicians who feel hard done will always want to cut deals with vulture-like businessmen so as to access their money for without money, especially in Botswana it is unimaginable that one can win state power.

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