Dear Editor
In high school, the common belief amongst my classmates was that Ian Khama would rule like a dictator. I carried this belief in me until April fool’s day 2008.
Something in me told me that those ideas were farfetched and that this is Botswana, the shining example of Africa, the country where the African men lived peacefully with their white counterparts with a certain amount of respect for each one’s different way of living, where independence was gained peacefully and our natural resources were not exploited by the white men (let’s just forget that Nicky is getting a huge chunk of the proceeds, kaaching).
A model president was retiring that day and handing over to, well, somebody who was liked by the people; there was stampede as people (who liked this guy) wanted to take a peek of him and I felt some hope for this country, thought the bad guys will be taken to task, felt there will be increased efficiency in the public service and so on and so on.
But fast forward to a year and some days later on, even the lay man on the street is living in fear of the Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS), wondering if he is going to be their next victim of mistaken identity, or are they going to promise him and his brother and his friends that the security force is going to kill them?
What is happening in this country? The Ministry of Education continues to be a disaster whilst its head goes around telling the nation that he is a national asset, that’s like a D student being top of the class when there are students who have A’s.
The reason why I’m writing this is because of the recent shooting of a man called Kalafatis.
This man was clearly not the most dangerous man in Botswana? Was he armed when the agents saw him? Did he threaten them or anyone else in anyway and why was the DISS going around telling those people that they were going to kill Kalafatis? What will it do to you when the police or army, or whoever did it, tells you they are going to kill your brother, son, cousin or friend, before a court of law even sentences them to death?
Why was Kalafatis hunted down and killed like that, in full view of everyone? Is the DIS Khama family security?
We are living in fear, are our delinquent brothers or friends going to suffer the execution style killing when the police are supposed to come arrest them?
We are only around 2 million people in Botswana; we are a close knit family, we cannot afford having situations where I know that my former classmate’s older brother killed my nephew or so on. That builds animosity in me and, if I’m not strong, revenge in the form of violence will become likely.
Another issue of worry is of the Zimbabwean who was deported after being charged with murder.
If this man killed the DIS guy, then why wasn’t he taken to court, Marietta Bosch wasn’t deported or kobedi, but this guy was deported after the poor DIS guy (maybe I should be glad he’s dead) was gunned down by his own trigger happy colleague.
I wouldn’t want to call these guys wannabe James Bonds but of late that’s exactly what they have been acting like.
It is hard to believe that these guys go around killing people just like in the mafia movies or in movies like Lord of War. Rambo is on the loose out there, ready to pounce on you if you dare make a mistake.
What worries me is that this organization cannot be taken to court so from what has been taking place, it’s only safe to assume that this organisation is an assassination type of organisation. There are 3 million Zimbabweans in just South Africa alone and millions elsewhere; that means if things really go bad all Batswana with the means could leave and go settle somewhere.
We will have degrees from more sponsorship and more will still be losing money because they still can’t get people to pay, re bereke ko America le China. That won’t be a problem because at the rural areas where they really like that guy, people will stay and the popular guy will continue getting his quality advice from people dubious people whose source of knowledge is a wonder.
We are living in fear. DIS guys! DIS guys, what you gonna do, what you gonna do when they come for you? If you vote for Ian Khama, you are condoning the ruthless killing of Batswana (he introduced this organization that’s taking more lives than any serial killer in Botswana) unwittingly making yourself a murderer as well!
from Concerned Citizen
