In 1976 when Botswana introduced its currency and breaking away from the South African rand, the P10 was the biggest banknote in the currency system held by Bank of Botswana. This was followed by P5, P2 and P1 and all were bearing the portrait of Ian Khama’s father.
To begin with, I personally think the Governor of Bank of Botswana, the Minister of Finance and their staff were so brave to even hatch an idea of a currency for Botswana ten years into independence. Quill Hermans and Ketumile Masire were the architects of this wild idea and they pushed it until the dream turned into reality.
The South Africans themselves did not believe that this was ever going to work and they waited to see the project implode on its weight. The 1910 SACU agreement between the newly formed Union of South Africa and the British Crown government had relegated us as a country to be a part of that country economically. So by bringing along the idea of a currency independence was not something they had ever thought Botswana could reach.
“There is no legally established timeframe for the change of any design features and/or any characteristics of Botswana currency. The Bank replenishes the stock of bank notes and coins from time to time in accordance with Bank Policies and Procedures.”
The above was a response from Bank of Botswana and this followed my enquiry on their policy regarding the change of portrait on the P10 which has caused a lot of consternation. And why should we as a country come to face a crisis every time we have to remove the portrait of a Khama from our currency? We need to dig deep into this because certainly there are very strong underlying factors that contribute to this attitude that has now run for four decades.
In the first place, when Ian Khama left State House in 2018, ironically the economy of Botswana was awash with new P10 notes that bear a plastic window as a security feature. This feature is technically infused on what is known as polymer subtract. This gives the note a longer lifespan in circulation.
It was deliberate for Khama to flood the market with this denomination on the same year he was leaving office. This was the time we should have complained as citizens rather than now when the bank is actually correcting the mistakes of the previous regime.
Clearly Khama had intensions to keep his portrait in our pockets forever. The noise raised now about the change of his portrait to that of the current president is clearly fuelled by the Khama Brigade.
According to sources close to the bank, the amount of this denomination which was printed the same year that there was going to be a change of guard at State House ran into billions. The fellow was literally making it impossible for his successor to ever appear on the face of our currency.
However, Bank of Botswana should have opted for something else. They should have with the approval of the Minister of Finance changed the portrait on the P50 denomination instead. Why should we have the two Khamas on our currency at the same time when they are not in power?
In fact the most economic change should have been applied on the P200 note. The way the previous government was ransacking the economy, there is no way they have not stashed hard currencies somewhere in the form of Botswana pula and the US dollar. That is a fact and I wonder who would in their right minds doubt this theory which is in fact an actuality.
I posed a question to the bank regarding the rumour about the currency stash and this was their response; “The Bank of Botswana can neither comment on your allegations regarding the stashing away of the P200 banknote nor has any immediate plans of changing the current design and characteristics of the P200 banknote.”
I am adamant that if there was a way of counting all the P200 banknotes, we were going to be shocked upon learning that there is a gap of a few billions that are not circulating in the economy. This has been the practice of many reserve banks across the third-world in addressing the issue of stolen money.
When banknotes are changed, that provides an opportunity for the reserve bank to screen where the money comes from. People bringing money in suitcases have to account for what is in their possession. It is usually very difficult to bring a truckload of banknotes and justify why it has not been in the bank.
There are a lot of reasons why banknotes are changed and they are usually security related. Over time counterfeiters master how to copy a particular banknote. Security features have to constantly change in order to secure the notes. So it is for this other reason that the P200 banknote must be changed.
Counterfeiters do not aim too low when they shoot and that’s the reason why we should change our P200 banknote. And this has to be done with utmost secrecy because the counterfeiters might be ahead of the bank. It has happened in South Africa before when they wanted to introduce the new one hundred rand banknote with the portrait of Nelson Mandela. The counterfeit notes hit the market before the real ones because they had made a public announcement earlier.
Currencies are the backbone of any economy and need to be protected. In fact a currency as good as ours in Botswana is particularly sought after. So the likelihood of having threats from counterfeiters, money launderers and previous regime looters is very high.
We cannot run away from the fact that a lot of looting happened in this country and there is no sufficient reason why they could loot every sector of the economy and leave out its currency. The security marshals at Bank of Botswana need to take these matters seriously and change the P200 banknote.
