Former President Lt Gen Ian Khama has resigned as Vision 2036 champion because his position as Tourism Ambassador has been suspended.
Khama told a gathering in Serowe that he received a letter from the Minister of Environment, Natural Resource Conservation and Tourism last week informing him that his position as Botswana’s Honorary Tourism Ambassador has been suspended. Mokaila’s letter explained that Khama’s position is not catered for in the ministry’s structure and has thus been suspended pending direction from the Attorney General.
Khama was appointed to the position during a farewell party hosted for him by the Botswana Tourism Organisation then under his brother, Tshekedi Khama who was the then Minister of Environment, Natural Resource Conservation and Tourism.
The Decision to suspend Khama’s position is believed to be part of Mokaila’s campaign to clean up the BTO.
The organisation has been fingered as the biggest offender of corporate governance at the government enclave operating for years without a Chief Executive Officer and the executive board.
BTO has ignored calls by the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) to appoint a Chief Executive Officer and the Executive Board after it became evident that cronyism, corruption and nepotism were rampant at the state-owned enterprise.
The PAC has accused former Minister, Tshekedi Khama of meddling in the administrative issues of the organisation – a claim which partly contributed to the resignation of the BTO CEO Thabo Dithebe.
In an earlier interview with the Sunday Standard, Mokaila stated that he would be addressing many issues that have been a concern under his ministry. “That’s why I am back,” he said.
The PAC has in the past accused his predecessor of cronyism for appointing his friends to some of the positions at BTO.
Addressing a public meeting in Serowe yesterday (Saturday) Khama stated that he would not accept the position should the Attorney General advice that he should be re-instated. He further stated that he was preempting the government from suspending his position as Champion of Vision 2036 by tendering his resignation.
While Khama accused Mokaila of not affording him the courtesy of engaging him face to face before giving him the letter announcing the suspension of his position he on the other hand announced his resignation from Vision 2036 at a public meeting before engaging government.
The vision aims to align Botswana “with the global agenda for sustainable development and the principles of Africa agenda 2063, to ensure that the country pursues the national aspirations in a way that enables Botswana to meet the global and regional goals.””
According to the vision mission statement: “the need for Botswana to intentionally define and manage its path to ‘Prosperity for All’, as well to adjusts to the rapidly changing global economy and social order was first noticed in 1966 following which the President then, sent a Presidential Task Group to go around the country doing consultations on how Botswana could achieve that. This ended in the vision 2016 which had 7 pillars. Developments were then aligned to meet these seven pillars which landed the country to where it is now. Now that vision 2016 has elapsed, with so many visible developments, it is not yet over as the country still has room for improvement.”
