FEATURE: Winds of change over Botswana

WHEN you become aware of how the Botswana Government have treated with disdain, their own sacred San people, a tiny race that is upheld and revered throughout the world, which until recently survived centuries without disease and through drought, one cannot but help question that country’s Presidential actual policies?

These racist policies however, have become more relevant to Zimbabweans throughout the world since the Government of Botswana announced that it “does not recognize Robert Mugabe as President of Zimbabwe” and has been instrumental in supporting the terrible sanctions which are affecting the very man they have purported to support in the streets of Zimbabwe.

Few realised at the time that, behind the diplomatic smiles, as has become apparent now, that this included the entire nation of Zimbabwe’s immigrants. Is it poetic justice that since their original proclamation, Botswana’s Ministry of Health has admitted that on the back of HIV/AIDS pandemic, TB infections have greatly increased?

It is obvious that this is because the Botswana Government have specifically excluded assisting Zimbabweans access to the country’s free public health system, and all because of a decision based on who the President of Zimbabwe is. The question do other immigrants to Botswana from Angola, Congo, Kenya and Somalia automatically access its free health system?

Refugees and asylum seekers who might be suffering from TB infections could have been be saved from a fate worse than death, if only the enriched Botswana Government had extended their benevolence to include housing, food and clean clothes, but instead their negative attitude has manifested a breeding ground for infectious and communicable diseases throughout Botswana - right on their doorstep? Is it time yet to declare Botswana an Infectious Diseases colony so that its nationals must flaunt relevant inoculations and health certificates, or is its Government keeping its true state of health under wraps?

With its western residents and diplomats upholding Botswana, it is not exactly a third world state in a developing world. In fact, the Central Statistical Office (BW) shows that, despite sanctions against Zimbabwe, during Zimbabwe’s Presidential Elections that country exported 5.1 percent of Botswana’s total exports to Zimbabwe! One assumes that as these were business deals, capitalising on the broken back of Zimbabwe’s struggling economic crisis, done through the back door during a world organised sanctions era in which one has little regard for its victims but is focused merely on making an instant profit, every fast buck will count.

Exports to Zimbabwe, according to Botswana’s Sunday Standard, were in fact 1.3 percent more than its exports to China during March 2008,

confirming that “Exports to Zimbabwe were valued at P155.7 million while those received by China were valued at P116.1 million! On the other hand, the combined total of goods exported to France, Germany, Belgium, Greece, Netherlands, Sweden and Portugal came to P71.3 million.” In fact, it is now common knowledge that Botswana exports more goods than any other African country to Zimbabwe!

It was surprising therefore, that a decision was made to eliminate Zimbabwe from the Memorandum of Understanding with Zambia and Botswana over construction of the US$70m Kazungula Bridge Project. This far-reaching decision only increased the three-way political tension with Zambia taking sides with Botswana, but perhaps it was a decision made to show the world (that, on the face of it) Botswana means business when it comes to supporting the sanctions in its dealings with Zimbabwe.

Were sanctions to be lifted tomorrow, it would be no surprise to learn that Botswana has reverted to its original agreement to now include Zimbabwe but only obviously, because without sanctions, there could now be even greater trade between Botswana and Zimbabwe, i.e. > P155.7m!

With the SADC borders in the region only recently opening up, prices in the local supermarkets and wholesalers have doubled, and Botswana nationals are no longer happy because they now find themselves in a similar situation to Zimbabweans.

It is not surprising because suddenly the very commodities, which once graced their boastful shelves, now having been purchased and hauled across the borders to northern states, are no longer available in Botswana but are seemingly available in none other than Zimbabwe itself!

Padding a gaping wound with PR wadding as the world watches, while the patient continues to haemorrhage severely, has apparently been the attitude of Botswana to its foreign immigrants, but over a period it would now appear that as a result Botswana has “shot itself in the foot” especially in disregarding its closest neighbour’s real predicaments in preference to supporting anti-western policies, despite the paternal President Mbeki urging Botswana to be more proactive in solving Zimbabwe’s crisis.

Ultimately this week, by agreeing in the Botswana High Court, to provide medication to the Zimbabwean deportee Mtandazo Sibanda’s, the result is that this Court is likely to find itself inundated with suits from many more immigrants appealing against deportation, while at the same time suing the Botswana Government and claiming treatment for Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB).

Until now Sibanda was just another anonymous statistic in the prison clinics of Botswana, but since his removal to Princess Marina’s Hospital to begin treatment, his case is fast becoming a monumental historical landmark, and one wonders whether other immigrants from countries such as Angola, Somalia and the Congo, will now be taking the Botswana Government for an unprecedented long ride that could have been nipped in the bud when they first arrived in the country seeking sustenance, a warm dry sanctuary beneath a roof over their head during the bitterly cold winters and an attitude of compassion which they claim they were denied in their own destabilised countries, an attitude that was practiced and perfected against an innocent San people, by a supposedly sophisticated and knowledgeable President, Ian Seretse Khama, a President who was warned by his own government against making derogatory statements about its key trading partner with deep friendship roots. One cannot but help compare this man with George Bush Jnr., another infamous son who himself has failed to walk in his own father’s footsteps.