Wene Owino
13 August 2008
Nairobi — The operation was swift, covert and efficient. Botswana's new President Ian Khama last week deported three Zimbabweans - one of them a top ZANU-PF spin-doctor.
In one fell swoop, the President sent the Zimbabweans packing last Friday, under the dreaded Section 7 of the Botswana Immigration Act.
For different reasons, Ceasar Zvayi, a ZANU-PF operative recently hired as a University of Botswana (UB) media studies lecturer, clerics Chris Chissana of Christ Embassy Church and Edmore Chaka of Abundant Life Ministries were declared Prohibited Immigrants (PI) in Botswana and shipped back to Zimbabwe in a well-executed operation where little was left to chance.
The government arrested the three and declined to release any information immediately. The following day, however, the authorities confirmed that the trio had been deported but gave no details.
Given recent government bungles with such operations, it was only wise that the deportations were carried out with stealth and maximum efficiency.
While his predecessor, Mogae in his 10-year reign declared about five foreigners Prohibited Immigrants, Khama has hit the ground running declaring three people persona non grata five months after assuming power. Perhaps importantly, he has avoided the blunders and bad publicity that resulted from some of Mogae's deportations.
Not too long ago, Mogae declared Nigerian Okolo Anthony Ikechukwu, a Prohibited Immigrant and made the work of a prosecutor difficult because the man was already facing criminal charges.
The prosecutor was hard put to explain to a magistrate why the state served a deportation order on a person facing criminal charges arising from theft of ARV drugs. Ikechukwu went ahead to demand, albeit unsuccessfully, that he should be deported because the state knew that he was facing charges when he was declared persona non grata. He is still in custody.
In 2006, an initial attempt to deport UB political science lecturer, Professor Kenneth Good, caught international attention. The Australian don went to court and got a temporary reprieve because his deportation order was not signed properly.
Eventually, he was ejected from Botswana after his legal challenge failed to overturn the deportation order. The hue and cry that accompanied Good's case earned Botswana bad press locally and internationally as loud questions were asked why he was declared persona non grata.
After the long-drawn out Good saga, chances of another gaffe were slim last week when Zvayi, a former political editor of the Zimbabwe's pro-government Herald newspaper and the two pastors were kicked out.
Received sacking letter
First, the lecturer was served with his sacking letter from the UB before a joint operation between immigration and security officers served him with a deportation order.
The officers had done a similar thing to the two pastors and the three Zimbabweans were brought together at the Moonlight Lodge in Gaborone where Zvayi was staying.
It was reportedly a sad scene as the officers collected Zvayi's belongings from a room in the lodge and bundled the three in a police van for deportation on Friday afternoon.
One mistake the ZANU-PF man did was that he failed to read the signs even after his cover was blown. Instead of lying low, he was his usual ballistic self, ranting about critics and vowing to remain a ZANU-PF die-hard. In a country that has shown at the highest level that it has no time for Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and ruling party ZANU-PF, this was suicidal.
Though the law empowers Botswana presidents to deport 'undesirable elements' without giving reasons, it does not need rocket science to know why Mogae and Khama have acted the way they did.
Zvayi and Good were sacked from the UB and deported because of political reasons while Chaka and Dr Henry Okechukwu were sent packing after negative reports linking them to theft of ARV drugs.
Before he was kicked out by Khama, Chaka, a pastor, had told his followers living with HIV/AIDS to stop taking ARV drugs and give them to him. Now reports say Chaka is suspected to be involved in smuggling ARV drugs from Botswana for sale in the black market in Zimbabwe.
The clerics, Chissana and Chaka are small fry whose repatriation would have attracted little attention if Zvayi was not part of the equation.
Zvayi was reportedly hiding in Botswana and managed to get a job as a lecturer, but it was only a matter of time before he could be shipped back, once his cover was blown last month.
Blacklisted by EU
His defence of the ZANU-PF regime and President Robert Mugabe and fierce attacks against critics, especially the West and leading Zimbabwean opposition party, MDC, saw him black-listed by the European Union (EU).
He gained prominence with his column in the pro-ZANU-PF Herald newspaper in Zimbabwe where he launched a no-holds-barred assault on MDC and the West.
He has celebrated the violent crackdown on MDC supporters and wrote articles deriding the party as Movement for the Destruction of Our Country or Morons for the Destruction of our Country. He has been blacklisted by the EU together with political editor of another pro-government newspaper, Munyaradzi Huni of Sunday Mail.
Questions have been asked about how Zvayi managed to get a job in Botswana, given his political background. He did not help his case by striking an unrepentant posture and talking tough when reports about his ZANU-PF leanings and anti-MDC stance emerged.
With Botswana's vocal stand on the crisis in Zimbabwe, there was no way Zvayi was going to retain his job or to stay in Botswana.
Boycott SADC summit
Botswana has clearly come out against the ZANU-PF regime after the March polls and the one-man June presidential elections run-off.
Botswana does not recognise Mugabe as president and has been calling for the suspension of Zimbabwe from regional and African organisations.
On Monday, Botswana lived up to its vow to boycott the SADC heads of state summit in South Africa if Mugabe is invited. Botswana said inviting Mugabe to the summit would be legitimising his rule when all observers agreed that his election failed the democratic tests set even by SADC.
However, it has been pointed out that though Khama has faulted the Zimbabwean polls and failed to recognise Mugabe regime, his ascendancy to power was by selection and not election after he succeeded the retired Mogae.
The Botswana Constitution was amended in the late 1990s to make the vice-president an automatic successor when there is a vacancy at the presidency.
Repeal deportation law
Besides automatic succession, the relocation of Basarawa (San) from the Central Kgalagadi Game Reserve (CKGR) and the death penalty, the use of the deportation law has in recent years been cited as another blot on the country's reputation as a shining example of democracy in Africa.
Critics of the law have said that it should be repealed or at least amended to compel the president to give reasons for declaring certain people undesirable.
Alternatively, they say the victims of the law should be given leave to challenge the president's decision in a court of law. They point out that the law can be misused against foreigners critical of government and cite the case of Good as an example.
The highly critical Good had consistently attacked the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) and questioned Botswana's democratic credentials under a party that has been in power since independence from colonial masters in 1966.
The unrelenting Good concentrated his criticism on automatic succession to the presidency and the controversial CKGR relocations. It was instructive that he was declared a Prohibited Immigrant just as he was about to present a critical paper on Botswana's democracy.
Under Botswana's second president, Sir Ketumile Masire, the deportation law was used on a number of occasions against foreign journalists.
Last year, Botswana slapped visa requirements on a number of foreign journalists, academics and activists mainly over the fallout from the CKGR.
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All this is good. The law is also good as it allows Botswana to express itself loudly. These people are being helped to go back to their beloved country. We need lecturers badly at the University of Zimbabwe and we pay them handsomely. If there are no working phones, toilets not flushing, starved students, no water, no power - not an issue, that is sovereignty. As for wolves in sheep's clothing, of course they must be deported on the spot! Well done Botswana.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if South Africa had a mature and efficient and fast-acting government like Botswana? It feels as if the people who rule and run our country are stuck in treakle. The worst of their negative traits are stubborness and pride. They refuse to ask for advice from the experts and bungle along leading the country increasingly into trouble. There is no loss of face in having experts advise us: great leaders have always had advisers. We need a miracle.
yes we can be happy and ululate that behold a man of action has finaly dawned on Africa,in the form of Khama but cant we see that this man is a Washington pointman.The miment we will realise that all our dignity as Abantu abanstuntu will long be gone ands we will have noone to cry to.Africans what has happenned to our Ubuntu really we can ululate the demise of a fellow brother its unheard of in our Afican culture today we arecelebrating the deportation of a fellow journalist Employing such cache words as swift to arouse hate and vitriol.For how long fellow black men bothfriends and foe shall we continue to be used by these people for their self gratification.Open your eyes and see the bigger picture as it stands we are being played brother against brother while they stand and look.Fellow countrymen Africans lets unite and built our continent torn apart disease and pandemic.Lets support our Pan African Ideas those that we see our selves directly benefitting this bickering is getting us nowhere.our nations are just being used as disease cannon fodders.For how long shall we stand watch ululate to ourselves while we flogg each other naked in front of our women AFRICA THE TIME IS NOW OR WE WILL JUST FADE AWAY INTO IRELLEVANCE .
Oh dear...how quick we are to complain when the shoe is on the other foot!!! Now comrade zvayi knows what it is like to be treated like a 2nd class citizen by fellow africans. Only difference is in his case he fully deserves everything that has happened to him..poor bugger...my heart bleeds for the poor sod. Bon voyage matey!!