Last week, Botswana President Ian Khama told a foreign newspaper about his fears over the impending referendum and elections in Zimbabwe.
Right from the beginning of the Zimbabwean elections fiasco of 2008, Ian Khama has always supported Morgan Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change.
Khama’s support for the MDC went way above taking sides as he denounced Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF’s failure to impose democracy in Zimbabwe. He articulated issues that Zimbabwean opposition leaders rarely did. In the end, Khama spoke out on issues afflicting Zimbabweans more than Tsvangirai and other opposition leaders did.
Khama had an affinity for Tsvangirai and hoped Tsvangirai would become leader in Zimbabwe to ease the burden of trade deficits and economic refugees in Botswana.
For years, Khama stood firm, not only in opposition to Mugabe’s regime but in support of Tsvangirai.
Whenever Tsvangirai had an ailment or was stressed out, he would come to Botswana and hole up in a “government guest house”, from where his close relatives and associates would whisk him away to the exclusive Phakalane Golf Estates where Tsvangirai would not be bothered by the media or Zimbabwean refugees.
Zimbabwean journalists in Botswana long gave up on seeking interviews with Tsvangirai when he came to Botswana.
At first, we believed it was ‘protocol’, whatever that was, but we still wonder at this man’s behaviour even after he became Prime Minister.
The last time he was here in Botswana, at least to our knowledge, he invited Zimbabweans to a local hall for a tête-à-tête but many reporters were taken by surprise having learned of the meeting very late on deadline day.
Whether it was deliberate or not, this was just a continuation of unfortunate behaviour by a national leader who continues to behave like a small boy nervously looking for his soccer ball in someone’s backyard.
Tsvangirai must be a bit forthcoming like a progressive leader among other African leaders.
He, unfortunately, continues to embarrass world leaders in Africa and abroad by making u-turns after gaining support for something from some quarters. His flip-flopping is legendary and it is my hope that this comes to an end soon because it is portraying him as a bungling man who cannot find a foothold in the position he finds himself in.
Ian Khama is a patient man.
Khama has suffered rebuke at home and abroad for his stand on Zimbabwe. Not only has Khama stood fast against Mugabe’s regime and behaviour, but he has made many public pronouncements against Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party.
Khama’s behaviour, while welcome to some of us caught up in the Zimbabwean fiasco, was a first. He was the man who literally forced fellow SADC leaders to debate the Zimbabwean issue, hardly a week after coming into office, a no-no among African despots.
Even some Batswana who are schooled enough to know better went on the attack and said Khama was putting Botswana’s welfare at risk by making pronouncements that were not policy of SADC and African Union.
Some people still believe these two organisations are relevant and must be listened to.
African leaders must learn to be independent enough to stand up for what is right across the continent, not to follow old retrogressive doctrines imposed on Africa by dictators who care little about their people’s welfare.
How can Botswana enjoy its freedom and independence when a neighbour has no such? Didn’t Botswana learn something from living next door to apartheid South Africa?
Having said that, it is unfortunate that Khama finds himself in a very lonely circle in Africa. It is my hope that he stands for the right thing regardless of the consequences otherwise he becomes as ordinary as all those African leaders prancing around.
Undoubtedly, Khama and his country have suffered a great deal for publicly denouncing Mugabe and supporting Tsvangirai. It is unfortunate that the person for whom Khama and Botswana have gone through so much has no idea of what is going on and shows no appreciation for what other countries have gone through in supporting him.
Last Thursday, when all other leaders were wringing their hands in gleeful anticipation of elections in Zimbabwe, Khama, once again, diverged and expressed serious doubts about the whole thing, much to the dismay of people like South African President Jacob Zuma.
About a week after Zuma expressed hopes and positive outcome of a Zimbabwean plebiscite, Khama expressed serious doubts that Mugabe and his party would not stand in the way of free and fair elections.
Apart from Raila Odinga in Kenya, hardly any other African leader has expressed such concerns.
“All I can say right now is that I hope there will be a credible election,” Khama told a South African newspaper. “The reason I say ‘hope’ is because all the people who were involved in the brutality and intimidation that took place back then are still there today.”
This is something people like Zuma and Tsvangirai should be aware of.
But in spite of the continuing violence, intimidation and abuse of the people, Tsvangirai has positioned himself as a cheerleader to elections that are to be held under very undemocratic conditions and whose outcome cannot possibly be free and fair.
Khama rightly believes that Mugabe’s supporters, who caused mayhem and killed 200 of Tsvangirai’s supporters in the 2008 elections, are still capable “of trying to engage in intimidation, deploying the security services to bring that about…telling the people in the security services how they should vote”.
He said that the potential for that is still there.
But Tsvangirai is already campaigning. Now if Tsvangirai does not care about the dangerous situation surrounding his own supporters, what is Khama, or any other foreign leader to do about it?
Tsvangirai appears ready to ignore the fact that many of the important issues laid down by SADC at the formation of the unity government have still not been implemented.
He does not care much that the army and the police have already been deployed in rural areas to deal with MDC supporters.
Khama has concerns and issues that Tsvangirai seems unconcerned with.
It is embarrassing to support a person who does not know what is good for him. Khama articulates Zimbabwean issues that the ordinary Zimbabwean is concerned with while Tsvangirai just runs around as if all is well in Zimbabwe, as if elections will be violence free when, in fact, violence has already started; when his own supporters are already under siege.
Rugare Gumbo, the ZANU-PF spokesperson, said that leaders of political parties in Zimbabwe, including Tsvangirai, had agreed on the draft constitution and are happy with it, and “that makes Khama’s sentiments absolutely irrelevant”.
Tsvangirai and Khama should not be on opposite sides on such an issue.
It would be advisable for Tsvangirai and his party to at least show much more appreciation towards Khama’s efforts and support for them.
Tsvangirai must slow down and appreciate the support he gets not only from people like Khama and other countries but from the Zimbabwean people.
His knee-jerk reactions, flip-flopping, turnarounds and enthusiasm for elections must not blind him to responsibilities he carries.
Taking such support for granted as he does is extremely arrogant and he must mend his ways before he gets punished for it.
Already, European countries that supported him by imposing some punitive sanctions on Mugabe and some of his cronies have started backtracking by removing some of the sanctions yet the reasons the sanctions were imposed are still there.
Tsvangirai is ignoring warnings from everywhere over the pitfalls in the draft constitution, in the forthcoming referendum and in the as-yet-to-be scheduled elections.
Khama has been a patient man; let us hope for the best.
