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Botswana: Mogae, Nchindo - Friends Are Not Forever
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Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
OPINION
9 January 2008
Posted to the web 9 January 2008
Gideon Nkala
Louis Nchindo has been described not just as President Festus Mogae's friend but a confidante. Nchindo has never served in the inner party politics. He ostensibly holds no credentials as a 'civil servant' in the government bureaucracy but his influence in government is said to have been legendary. He was not only a kingmaker but he has had the ear of the presidency than many can ever claim to have had.
It is public knowledge that Nchindo was first among Mogae's many friends. Urban legend has it that it was Nchindo who brokered the deal to coax Vice-President Ian Khama from the army barracks to be annointed as Mogae's deputy.
In good times, when long hearty laughter pierced through the rich aroma of cigars, exotic smoke and good wines, men and women who referred to Nchindo in venerated names talked about how Nchindo saved Mogae from the clutches of politicians such as Ponatshego Kedikilwe who could have been Vice President in 1998 when Sir Ketumile Masire retired from office and possibly challenged him for the presidency in an open party contest to snatch the baton from him.
Those in the know talk about Nchindo, the midwife who helped stabilise Mogae's turbulent formative years as president.
Like friends naturally do, Nchindo and Mogae must have shared secrets or as the political euphemism goes; they confided in each other.
It would perhaps be revealing too much that Mogae and Nchindo as friends shared the luxuries of life, the finer things and the rough spots that each had been through.
Lately, there have been indications that the relationship between Nchindo and Mogae was strained.
Mogae did not renew Nchindo's contract when it ended in 2004. And as if in spite, Mogae appointed Kedikilwe as minister of minerals overlooking Debswana - for a man that was regarded as a pariah, this must be quite an achievement to be shepherding Debswana at a time when Nchindo is being hauled before the courts.
At a media cocktail hosted by President Mogae at the State House in December last year, President Mogae could have given an indication that he had fallen out with his one-time bosom friend.
"Ke ne ke laleditswe ke tsala ya me ya mohumi Mochindo," Mogae told the media about a party that they had in Kasane at the invitation of Nchindo.
There was, of course, some discernible sarcasm on the 'tsala ya me ya mohumi' - my rich friend. The name Nchindo was corrupted to Mochindo, not once but twice at least.
There was laughter all around the State House gardens at the president's sense of humour, but this could have been Mogae's way of communicating a relationship that had comatosed to the point that he could not even bring himself to pronounce the name of a former friend.
On January 31, when the two meet in court - if their relationship has not irretrievably broken down - it would certainly go for the last litmus test.
In the upcoming case against Nchindo and other former employees of Debswana, Mogae is listed as one of those people that Nchindo had deceived in a bid to acquire state land in Gaborone. It stands to reason that if count II is to stand, legal experts say President Mogae would have to give evidence in court against his former friend.
In litigation, friends that find themselves in opposing corners become adversaries and their friendship is replaced by hostility.
The 'Mogae-Nchindo relationship' is seen as a duel that could offer a peep not just into the goings on at Debswana but the personal relationship that defined public policy.
There is a possibility, just a possibility, that a scorned relationship could reveal some things that have been nothing more than perception and gossip.
As a major corporation, Debswana is linked to everything. Although it has not been proven, it has been suggested that Debswana could be the mystery donor that bankrolled the ruling Botswana Democratic Party. Every election year the party buys new Toyota vehicles for every parliamentary constituency much to the chagrin of the paupers that the opposition parties are.
For a long time, there has been speculation that either Debswana or another corporation sponsored the BDP to hire the South African political consultant, Lawrence Schlemner to try and diagnose the BDP's elections' ailments and suggest a remedy.
It was he who prescribed the Khama remedy to the BDP when the army commander was still in his army uniform. With a scorned Nchindo in the dock, there is a possibility that these and many other issues could be ventilated.
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...there is a possibility that the case could force these skeletons to come tumbling down.
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The existence of diamond enforced stability that Botswana has enjoyed for the last 20 years has buffered the cushy life of senior members of government and closely related business chums from the consequences of recieving immoral 'benifits' or corruption that would and should be expected in a healthy democratic state.
Additionaly, it seems the dirty fingers of American congressman that are disguised by a glove of righteous western aid and development (diamonds for development) has been scraping the excess fat of the system for themselves.
The buffer capacity of Botswana's large wealth supporting a small population, can only take... [Read Full Text]
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