Wene Owino
9 April 2008
analysis
Gaborone — While many African countries are still grappling with negative ethnicity and its bloody consequences, Botswana seems to have successfully cooled and bottled the tribal hot-potato for now. This has been exemplified once again by the country's third peaceful power transition last Tuesday.
When new President Lt-Gen Ian Seretse Khama took over and made his first civil service and Cabinet appointments, the main bone of contention was not which tribe got what. Instead, the most controversial issue of the appointments was the continued militarisation of power in Botswana.
This became topical despite the fact that if anybody wanted to make tribalism an issue in the appointments and the power transition, there would be plenty of supporting evidence.
Three of the country's four presidents so far trace their origins from Serowe, capital of the influential Bangwato. And, two of the four presidents are from one family - Ian Khama being the son of the respected late founding president Sir Seretse Khama.
Since 1998 to date, the Botswana president and his deputy have been Bangwato or assimilated Bangwato - and importantly, all trace their origins to Serowe and the expansive Central District.
All the three MPs from Serowe are full Cabinet ministers. The Bangwato despite occupying the presidency and vice-presidency have the highest number of cabinet ministers in Mr Khama's administration.
Besides Mr Khama and his vice-president Mompati Merafhe, other Serowe full Cabinet ministers are Brigadier Ramadeluka Seretse, Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi and Nonofho Molefhi.
Brigadier Seretse is a cousin of the new president. But this is not a major issue, his military background is what has elicited criticism. He has been moved from the Ministry of Lands to the powerful Defence, Security and Justice docket.
Lured from his post
Ever since Mr Khama was lured from his post as commander of the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) in 1998, there has been what critics have said a slow but sure militarisation of power in Botswana. This became much more evident after the 2004 general elections when five of the 14 Cabinet ministers were soldiers.
The government defended the presence of the men from the barracks saying that all of them joined politics after retiring from the military. Under Mr Khama, the military presence in the Cabinet has been reduced to four after Major-General Moeng Pheto was sacked as Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture.
But this has been more than compensated for elsewhere. President Khama has made Mr Merafhe, his former boss and first commander of the BDF his vice-president. The move has been criticised on the grounds that two army generals now occupy the two most powerful positions in the land.
Another area that has realised high-profile appointment of soldier boys is the civil service. The most notable is easily the newly established Directorate of Security Intelligence (DSI) which became operational on the same day Mr Khama was sworn in. Its head is Colonel Isaac Kgosi, President Khama's longtime aide from his military days.
Colonel Kgosi's position has been a controversial matter in Botswana. Not too long ago, an MP asked a question in Parliament why a soldier is serving as a civil servant. Unlike the other soldiers, the colonel is not retired and is on secondment from the military - at least that is the explanation the government gave when the MP asked about Col Kgosi's status.
As was reported by the media - but denied by the powers that be - he has been appointed the first head of the DSI, a unit that replaces the Special Branch and whose creation was controversial.
The government had to use subterfuge to get Parliament to pass the law to establish the spy-outfit.
Besides Col Kgosi, President Khama has appointed another soldier, Colonel Duke Masilo as his private secretary with the rank of deputy secretary. And, Tefo Mokaila elder brother to Cabinet minister Captain Onkokame Kitso Mokaila returns to State House as private secretary to the president - a position occupied by his father during Seretse Khama's time.
Critics have pointed out that Serowe military homeboys are now converged at the Office of the President with Khama as head of state, Seretse as Minister of Defence and Security, Merafhe as Vice-President and Col Kgosi as head of security intelligence.
Despite the emphasis on the militarisation of power in Botswana - at the expense of tribalism - the country has had its share of ethnic problems. The problems revolve around demands by minority tribes to have paramount chiefs and their languages be taught in schools.
The situation is not helped by the fact that the country's Constitution only recognises the eight Tswana speaking 'tribes' - they are not tribes as known elsewhere. It is like saying the Luos of Alego, Sakwa, Ugenya or Yimbo are distinct tribes or the Kamba of Kilome, Mwingi, Masinga or Yatta are separate ethnic groups.
Though the Botswana Constitution only recognises the eight main tribes, the reality is that the country has several ethnic groups and the best known are Kalanga and Basarwa.
The constitutional position has therefore been very contentious. Attempts under Mogae and his predecessor Sir Ketumile Masire to reform the Constitution to make it tribally neutral has foundered mainly because of opposition from the so-called big tribes.
Section 77, 78 and 79 of the Constitution gives the chiefs of the eight tribes a hereditary right to sit in the House of Chiefs and hegemony over other tribes. The sections were nearly reformed under Mogae after a commission went around the country collecting views.
The government came up with a White Paper to abolish the sections following recommendations of the commission but the big tribes prevailed and scuttled the process.
Later, the government diluted the House of Chiefs by increasing the number of elected members amid protests from the big tribes. Paramount chiefs from the eight big tribes still sit in the House of Chiefs as a birth-right.
A dispute has centred on whether elected chiefs are superior to hereditary ones. One of the minority tribes, the Bayeyi has demanded to have its own paramount chief who will sit in the House of Chiefs. The tribe has fiercely resisted the hegemony of the Batawana - one of the big eight tribes.
Has always insisted
Mr Mogae has always insisted that if tribalism exists in Botswana, then he would not have become president because he is from the obscure Batalaote group. But critics have pointed out that the Batalaote have been assimilated by Bangwato and now pass themselves as Bangwato hence they are not a minority.
Interestingly, the Kalanga, the most populous of the so-called minority groups dominate the country's business, academia, parastatals and even security forces. They are also the most enterprising.
Their claims of oppression in modern Botswana have irked the so-called big tribes who say they practiced discrimination in the early years of independence by deliberately awarding themselves scholarships and that is why they are so dominant.
The fact that they have their own language has rubbed the Tswana groups the wrong way because they feel the Kalanga conspire against them even in their presence by switching to their mother tongue.
Though the tribal powder keg in Botswana has largely been doused, there are still signs of smoke but there is little cause for alarm at the moment.
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