Why would a central bank print excess notes of an outgoing President on the eve of an election and still circulate them four years down the line?
It’s happening at Bank of Botswana where financial prudence appears to have been thrown out the window despite economic difficulties ostensibly to appease a former Head of State.
All the more worrying is that Bank of Botswana can’t say why it’s still printing excess P10 notes bearing a former President’s portrait when Botswana has had a substantive incumbent for more than three years following a general election. The bank has refused to answer questions sent to them more than a month ago.
Given Botswana’s political automatic succession plan as enshrined in the Constitution, despite protestation from a section of society and academia, Botswana was bound to have a new President at least after Mokgweetsi Masisi’s ruling Botswana Democratic Party won the general elections in 2019 meaning the central bank could not second guess who might be the country’s next President.
Bank of Botswana decided to print excess P10 notes bearing the portrait of a former President (Ian Khama) ahead of a general election and continues to re-print such legal tender notes alongside those of a sitting President four years down the line.
There are fears that the somewhat troubled transition of power from Khama to Masisi has caused those sympathetic to both men to frustrate the functioning of state organs as the nation has known them.
The Bank’s spokesperson Seamogano Mosanako in her refusal to answer specific questions by The Telegraph regarding this matter, which she deemed as trivial, said the bank gave a response in February 2021 and would not wish to entertain further questions regarding the matter. She would not care less what specific questions were being asked but would prefer The Telegraph refer to a response from an enquiry sent out to the bank by another newspaper (Botswana Guardian).
The Telegraph had asked the bank whether or not it has a monetary policy regarding circulation of P10 bearing former Heads to state and the cost implications of printing such P10 notes at the tax payer’s expense but the bank refused to respond. The bank would also not state whether or not other notes are printed from the same source as the P10 note given that the least denomination is poor in quality as compared to other denominations with a limited circulation lifespan.
When former President Festus Mogae left office, the bank demonetized the third president’s notes at break neck speed to replace them with those of the then incumbent Khama. The same did not happen when Khama left office replaced by Masisi. The bank continues to circulate new notes bearing the former President concurrently with those of a sitting President.
Just under one year of Khama and his ruling Botswana Democratic Party being given the mandate to rule at the polls, Bank of Botswana demonetized Mogae P10 notes. The bank issued this statement on March 18 2010 – a year after Khama was voted into office.
“The public is hereby reminded that the deadline for exchange of the banknotes at commercial banks, Botswana Building Society, Botswana Savings Bank and Botswana Postal Services is March 31, 2010. After this date, the old banknotes will be exchanged only at the Bank of Botswana offices in Gaborone and Francistown until December 2014. The public is further advised to continue to maintain vigilance and ensure that only genuine banknotes bearing security features and images indicated by the Bank are in circulation, “wrote the then Bank of Botswana spokesman Chepete Chepete.
The symbolic P10 note has come to be seen as signifying the incumbency of Botswana’s Head of State. The deviation by the central bank in this regard would appear to portray the bank as playing to the dictates of a political feud between a former President and the incumbent.
It was not possible to get immediate comment from the Ministry of Finance.
The biggest unanswered question which the bank refuses to answer is whether or not its monetary policy is dictated by the political climate at any given time.
Better still, the bank is refusing to divulge why the P10 is of low quality compared with other denominations and whether or not the Botswana notes are printed from the same source.
