A video footage doing rounds has the President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe talking about the harrowing and frustrating experience that was the-behind- the-scenes efforts by Pelonomi Venson to become Chairman of the African Commission.
The occasion is a closed, private meeting between the governments of Zimbabwe and South Africa.
The President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma is also in attendance.
The Mugabe footage is a direct contrast of the diplomatic talk that Venson has adopted since her traumatic loss in an election that she was really supposed to win had she been given the kind of official support and resources that was due to her, especially during the first round of the contest.
Venson has maintained that she got all the support that President Khama could have given her.
Her docile applause of Khama has occasionally reminded me of the kind of praise that we often see on television the neutered North Koreans heaping on their Supreme Leader.
It is clear from his demeanour, forthrightness and bluntness that Mugabe had not expected the footage to be made public
Because this is intended to be a private meeting, the footage in the end, gives us an honest peek into what other countries in the region really think of Botswana.
The fact that the whole room is ablaze with laughter as Mugabe dissects and denigrates the arms-length approach by President Ian Khama as Venson struggled in vain to become African Union chairman is even more instructive.
In the footage, not once does Mugabe mention Venson by name.
He only refers to her as another lady from Botswana; “the poor lady who thought she could do what madam [Nkosazana] Zuma had done,” says Mugabe.
More crucially is the fact that not once does the 93 year old Zimbabwean leader, who until now we thought was senile refer to President Khama by name.
He says Africa and Zimbabwe in particular has derived a lot of knowledge from South Africa, “a reputed South Africa,” he adds emphatically, especially about the struggle, implying that not the same can be said about Botswana.
Given the importance of what Mugabe has said, especially in so far as it ultimately summarises the changed attitude of other countries towards Botswana as shown by the Venson candidacy, it is pertinent that we quote the President of Zimbabwe in detail.
“They sweated, you sweated, we sweated, one man did not sweat. He stayed at home and expected that wonders would happen. They didn’t happen. We were very sorry. Everybody just said ‘aah, you, we have not seen your president here. He doesn’t attend our meetings. And what will happen if we placed our organization in your hands, in his hands? So sorry lady we won’t give you the vote.’ She worked hard, she was very sorry to lose. We were sorry also. But we knew in advance that we were trying a very impossible one. So we lost in that case.”
Already some in government are already bewailing the fact that Mugabe could be so ruthless in his caricature of Botswana and its president.
That really is beside the point. It amounts to denial.
As citizens we should be happy that by stroke of luck, we have been able to lay our hands on a piece of unvarnished truth in how our country and government are perceived in the region.
Such unfiltered truth, when it comes, is invariably always helpful.
A close confidante came up with a terrific analogy in reference to the Mugabe recording.
“We should not view Mugabe as a blemish,” he said to me.
We should rather look at him as a mirror that shows us our blemish, the international wreckage that we become, he added.
“Unfortunately for us it looks like we are so worried of the blemish that instead of dealing it, we now want to break the mirror.”
That is exactly the temptation on the part of Botswana Government.
Botswana’s foreign policy posture is facing the biggest crisis since our country attained independence in 1966. At the moment our foreign policy does not seem to have a centre on which it is anchored.
It is erratic.
That is demonstrated, not by Mugabe’s footage, but rather by the country’s diminishing stature in the eyes of peers across the continent and also far afield.
For a long time now some of us have said that the shift in our foreign policy under Ian Khama had cost this country dearly.
Instead of looking at such concerns, the government has been hitting back at us.
“We remain as great as ever,” has been a retort from Government.
Mugabe has offered his succinct analysis as President Ian Khama is already in the twilight of his presidency.
Thankfully the damage that Khama has done to Botswana’s standing in the world eyes can still be reversed and be repaired.
That responsibility should be among the top priorities of the next Government.
Our foreign policy has been unrepentantly erratic.
And sadly, no less so have been efforts at self-justification by our Government, as recently shown by the aborted efforts to host the Dalai Lama of Tibet.
In 1949, a celebrated British official, Sir Henry Tizard wrote an outstanding memorandum too often quoted in foreign policy literature. He was advising the British Ministry of Defence : ”We persist in regarding ourselves as a Great Power capable of everything and only temporarily handicapped by economic difficulties. We are not a Great Power and never will be again. We are a great nation, but if we continue to behave like a Great Power we shall soon cease to be a great nation.”
Sir Henry could easily have been writing about Botswana’s culture of denial in today’s foreign policy.
Mugabe footage has exposed our follies.
We should not concern ourselves with the motives behind the leaking of the footage, much less who is behind that leaking.
Instead we should work at rebuilding our international image.
If we don’t, we shall soon cease to be what Sir Henry called a great nation.
