I am waiting for the Press Secretary to the President Rre Batlhalefi Leagajang to come and say (if he hasn’t done so already) nothing precludes the President from driving himself on a public road because he is firstly, a Motswana with an O Mang identification (National Identity Card) and secondly because he is a licenced driver.
This against the fact that the President was last week seen driving himself in the company of the First Lady from what looked like a shopping mall. I could not believe my eyes against the background and context that the President’s life has been said to be under serious danger from none other than his chief protector Rre Fana Magosi, the Director General of Intelligence and Security Services (DISS). While I have always given Rre Magosi the benefit of the doubt on the President’s security on account that he speaks with authority on such matters, I have since withdrawn that benefit. Precisely on the basis that the President cannot and should not be allowed to drive himself on a public road if indeed his life is in danger whether from within or without. This incidence should say in all probability that the nation and the world have been taken for a ride.
While I do exonerate the President from compromising his own security, I don’t do so entirely. Accepting that he is not a known security expert, I expect him to have asked Rre Magosi hard and difficult questions assuming he is the one who came with the idea of driving himself on a public road. Given that you have been telling the nation and the world that my life is in imminent danger, has the danger disappeared? When did it do so? How are you going to respond when the nation and the world seek answers on my security on account that you made those claims?
Did the President ask these questions and were they honestly and genuinely answered? The President and the First Lady as the persons whose security should not be compromised for even a second, should have demanded that their security on that particular day should be as on any other day. That is, there shouldn’t be a minute where security complacency or breach of whatever form or shape is allowed to creep in. On that respect, I believe the President also committed an error of judgement and should therefore, take the blame.
Security experts give reasons why Presidents should not drive themselves particularly on public roads because they become overwhelmingly exposed to all sorts of threat and danger. The President should be driven by well-trained drivers who would act swiftly to be able to evacuate him to safety in cases of attack. If these reasons are correct, is the President trained to evacuate himself should he have, God forbid, been attacked on the day he drove himself? Your guess is as good as mine. In the United States for example and for security reasons, high profile persons like sitting and former Presidents and Vice Presidents are not allowed to operate motor vehicles on public roads as per the 1958 Former Presidents Act. Such task is for Secret Service agents who are trained in ‘evasive and defensive driving manoeuvres’. It is said that they can drive themselves within the confines of their own ranches far away from the public eye. Gorge W. Bush revealed in a television interview that he had not driven on a public road in nearly 25 years particularly because is a former President whose driving needs are performed by someone else.
I am drawing the attention of the reader to emphasise how some countries take the security of their sitting and past Presidents very seriously. The hullabaloo propagated by Rre Magosi on more than one occasion in recent times about the security of the President could simply be regarded as hot air based on the recent event. The President is reported to have received top notch armoured vehicles specifically to protect him round the clock whenever travelling by road. Why he drove himself in a bottom notch toyota vehicle when he is spoilt for choice with respect to high value state-of-the-art vehicles, is beyond comprehension.
It should not come as a surprise that events turned out as they did. The DISS has largely been in the news for all the wrong reasons in the recent past. DISS agents are known by all and sundry because their identities have been revealed more regularly than would be the case under normal intelligence circumstances; its internal matters which for all intents and purposes are classified, are quickly in the public domain as soon as they occur; the DIIS reportedly has a hand in the current conundrum with respect to the Butterfly case and the P 100 billion loot; the World of Oath story that DISS owed it P 15 million for the 2019 general election ‘tender’; the recent video showing the arrival of the President’s armoured vehicles is the cherry on top.
With the DISS so naked in the public eye like a newly born baby in almost all respects, wouldn’t it be fair to suggest it possibly stood to compromise the President’s security in one respect or the other? I am neither a security expert nor am I intending to become one but as a citizen, I must be seriously concerned when on the face of it, security dots don’t seem to connect. When the President’s security looks as suspect as it is notwithstanding the financial resources recently revealed in parliament to that effect, one stands to be persuaded to think along those lines.
We were made to believe that some individuals were arrested through a DIIS operation in Palapye at a BDP event some few years back. Such individuals were alleged to have carried real guns or something to that effect. This was at the height of assassination attempts on the life of the President. This case as far as I can recall, never saw the light of day or if it did, nothing came out of it. By any measure, this case should have been of the highest priority to the security sector whereupon investigations should have been expedited with culprits appearing in court. I am yet to hear of the outcome. Particularly that individuals were arrested and would have appeared in court with a conviction would the DISS have made a compelling case on assassination attempts on the life of the President. Like I have said, the dots don’t seem to connect.
The sum total of my argument is that it doesn’t make any compelling case for Rre Fana Magosi to repeatedly tell the nation and the world with some degree of conviction and authority that the President’s life is under serious danger yet, he allows him to drive himself on a public road. Any would-be assassin would be secretly keeping tabs on the President’s movement and, terrifying as it is, would have been given the golden opportunity to strike when the President is behind the wheel. Its either the danger is self-created or if indeed it exists, the chief protector is failing to deal with it. For me, the President’s security must not only be talked about but must also be seen to be in motion. Like I have already said, I am no security fundi but a citizen whose President’s security should not be seen to be compromised under any circumstances.
It will be argued probably fairly so that the President was fully protected on the day in question. My point however still remains: is the President trained, like I presume his round the clock drivers, to perform ‘evasive and defensive driving manoeuvres’ in terms of evacuation to safety in the event such was necessary and not in the context of mere ordinary drivers but in the context of him being the President. The sooner the President reins in Rre Magosi in the overall situation at the DISS, the better. It appears from where I stand, given the many unfolding events thereat, that there could be serious leadership lapses and gaps which must be fixed sooner than later. Therefore, the President’s life cannot convincingly be in danger when he drives himself on a public road. I am prepared to be persuaded otherwise as always. Judge for Yourself!
Once more, Covid-19 pandemic victims are people me and you have known. Let us do all in our power to save more lives in their honour by strictly complying with Covid-19 protocols. It is our civic duty to do so.
