Harare — BOTSWANA is an African country shaped by African value systems.

It is also a sovereign state which shapes its own destiny, depending on those values.

The same applies to Zimbabwe.

We will not apologise to anyone that we are a people whose values are shaped by painful, but successful revolutionary struggles waged against settler colonialists.

It becomes a bit disturbing that another African leader, a neighbour for that matter whose nation has also shaped Zimbabwe's liberation struggles wants to personally involve himself in Zimbabwe's internal matters.

I refer to Botswana's President Ian Khama Seretse Khama whose obsession with Zimbabwe's internal matters is going overboard, if his recent utterances are anything to go by.

At the signing ceremony of the GPA last year, President Mugabe made it very clear that he would never rubbish another African leader in public, because there are forums where they can do that.

So why does Khama want to continue to be in Zimbabwe's detail?

By continually saying that there should be fresh elections, as he is quoted as having said recently, is he trying to demonstrate that he knows Zimbabwe more than Zimbabweans know themselves?

Has his association with MDC-T made him their spokesperson, who makes absurd utterances to whip up emotions?

Is Khama also trying to say that he is more democratic than President Mugabe? Come on!

What democratic principles when a whole head of state takes it upon himself to deport people of other nationalities forgetting that it is foreign nationals who have helped Botswana transform to where it is today?

And is that democracy to have foreign nationals caned without so much of a trial?

Maybe Khama should also go back to the archives of his national newspapers.

He will see a front page story where national hero Ariston Chambati when he was still head of T A Holdings told former president Sir Ketumile Masire to get rid of their "cattle post mentality."

Khama will also see that Chambati said that it was not sustainable for a nation that had a 75 percent staff complement from Zimbabwe at one health institution: nurses and doctors included? These were the eighties.

These are Zimbabweans whose professional skills were a result of Zanu-PF's pro-active education policies.

Lest President Khama has not realised that, this is one of President Mugabe's legacies to this nation and no one can take it away from him.

If he is so obsessed by Zimbabwe's electoral system, we ask that despite him being elected president, were the elections in Botswana as free as he would want everyone to think?

Just because the Western media always calls Botswana "one of Africa's most stable democracies", does not mean that is so because it is an adage that they have used to manipulate Botswana in order to have access to its mineral resources -- diamonds in particular.

Is democracy only confined to the holding of free and fair elections?

Why have we not heard Khama giving a similar prescription to the USA and the UK regarding the recent Afghan elections which have made democracy a laughing stock, and has also made a mockery of the West's claims of upholding democratic values?

We understand his strong ties with the UK since he is a grandson, but he also has to know that he cannot be a fence sitter.

His father Sir Seretse Khama was an African and that makes him a de facto African.

Let him revisit the Americans' definition of a black person, whereby as long as one has 2 percent black blood in them, whether from the father or mother, they are nothing but people of colour -- African-Americans to be precise.

US President Barack Obama has never doubted that.

However what is crucial is that when one comes from a mixed parentage, especially black and white, where do they place their values?

Therefore, could Khama please leave Zimbabwe alone to settle its internal problems the best way it sees fit?

If we need assistance, we will not be embarrassed to ask our brothers and sisters in the region and on the continent to come to our assistance.

Zimbabwean would actually never have been realised if leaders and peoples of the region and the continent had not walked that rough road wit us.

Diamonds are also not forever, President Khama.

Why concentrate so much energy on the Zimbabwe issue when Botswana desperately needs development and diversification?

Zimbabwe does not need this unsolicited refereeing which the Botswana leader has taken upon himself as a personal mission, especially when it is so blatantly clear that he is doing it on behalf of Western nations, especially Britain and the US, that will not rest until their illegal regime change agenda is realised.

We also do not normally want to do this, because apart from being a head of state, Khama is a traditional leader, and those titles speak a lot. We want to respect him, but he is making it very difficult for us to do so.

To President Khama we also say that President Mugabe is either a phone call away.

Or, he can come in person and just tell him that Botswana wants him to hold fresh elections before the five years are over.

Why make pronouncements through the media?

Why also continue to be a detractor, when all that we seek is a brotherhood of nations in the region?

Just in case President Khama has never heard this, or thinks that Zimbabwe is bluffing, we have made it very clear to the whole wide world, Britain and the United States especially that "Zimbabwe will never be a colony again!"

They will use as many as they want, but it is all for nought.

Zimbabwe and Africa are moving on, and not looking back.

Even South African praise poet Mbuli Mzwake has immortalised that in a powerful song where he reiterates, "Zimbabwe will never be a colony again".

This region needs peace.

It also needs sustainable development, and it should refuse the begging mentality.

It should also refuse the pillaging and plundering of its natural resources for the sake of foreign direct investment.

It needs to create symbiotic ties with one another, where nation states work together feeding into and from one another. It should be a mantra we carry that we do not repeat mistakes made during slavery and colonisation, where some cohabited with the enemy, leading to the massive genocides where no reparations have been paid to Africa.

That self-consciousness about our history and identity should make us realise the folly of being used to destroy one another, whatever the reason might be for we are Africans first and will remain Africans.

Our relationship with the rest of the world, the West in particular, should not be conditioned on destroying each other, with them having an upper hand over us.