Corruption and Mismanagement in Botswana: A Best ... - See also

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CORRUPTION AND MISMANAGEMENT 507restrictions meant the curtailment of such covert projects, and after theWeekly Mail and Mmegi had begun to expose the true nature of theSADF's publication.The Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration,Lieutenant-General Mompati Merafhe, had stated in August I 99I thatBotswana viewed the media reports seriously; if they proved true, 'thepresence of Newslink in Botswana... would therefore be most unacceptable'."9The exposure steadily increased, and Newslink wasallowed in mid-December to withdraw large truckloads of equipmentover the Botswana border. How and why this was done, as locallybasedemployees clamoured for unpaid wages and suppliers foroutstanding payments, has not been fully explained.20 Later still, inNovember I992, Merafhe announced that Botswana was to lodge aprotest with South Africa, adding to a Mmegi interviewer: 'We feltthere was something sinister about the whole matter', although notdenying the suggestion that a brother of President Masire had beeninvolved with the Newslink management.21 The whole incident was themore strange since the Government had previously adopted aconsistently strong stance on issues of national security.The decision-making which has led to the construction of 'ProjectEagle', the new military airbase near Molepolole west of the capital, ishighly questionable. There was a perceived need to move Botswana'sAir-Arm from its existing location in the middle of Gaborone, but itmight well have been re-located at Sir Seretse Khama InternationalAirport - which is not an over-utilised facility - rather as the largerZambian Air Force is based in Lusaka. The Air-Arm as constituted isa very small force: as of I99I-2, it consisted of I3 obsolescent groundattackaircraft (8 BAC-I67, 5 BN2), one transport squadron (2Defenders, 2 CN-235, 2 Skyvans, I BAe 125-800), and 7 unarmedhelicopters (2 AS-35oL, 5 Bell 4I2).22In November I992, the Government released a document, datedMarch i99i, stating that Project Eagle had been conceived much1" Quoted in Mmegi, 30 August i99i.20 According to the Midweek Sun, i8 December iggi, three truckloads of printing equipmenthad been allowed to pass through the Tlokweng border-gate with South Africa on the morningof Sunday, I 5 December, 'leaving creditors at a loss about how to pursue their claims against thepaper', while the Botswana Gazette of the same day spoke about the workers having been 'left highand dry' by the sudden departure.21 Mmegi, 6 November I992, reported Mompati Merafhe as having said: 'Certainly I don'tthink there is any conclusive evidence that Basimanyana [Masire] knew about the machinationsof N~ewslinkBotswana.22 The International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Military Balance, 9ggz-93 (London,1992), estimated the total personnel of Botswana's Air-Arm as 'ioo+', while Business Day(Johannesburg) has suggested 300.
508 KENNETH GOODearlier when regional conflict was rife, and when Seretse KhamaAirport could have been vulnerable to attack (as presumably the cityairport or Molepolole might also have been). It claimed that the costswould not exceed P624 million, but no reference was made toadditional expenditures on new equipment, spare parts, and training.It is only through the expansion, indeed the transformation of theairwing, necessitating larger outlays on costly machines and ancillarymaterials and services, that Botswana's utilization of Project Eaglecould be understood and rationalized. The Midweek Sun commented atthe time that the document served to confirm the existence of'unwarranted and excessive secrecy within the government'.23In the I 992-3 financial year, defence claimed 9-4 per cent ofBotswana's total expenditure, largely represented by the costs of thenew airbase, and over the current planning period the military wasexpected to consume almost I3 per cent of development outlays.Confusion appeared to exist within the Government itself over thewisdom of such expenditures. Delivering his I 992 budget speech, theMinister of Finance and Development Planning, Festus Mogae, saidthatthe less threatening environment that is gradually emerging in theregion... should serve to reduce Botswana's expenditure on defence, andenable resources to be re-directed towards productive developmentobjectives. 24While the regional environment has continued gradually to improve,despite conflict in Angola, the construction of the Molepolole base hasgone ahead. The South African correspondent of lane's Defence Weekly(London), Helmoed Heitman, estimated in I993 that the final cost ofProject Eagle, when completed in I 995, would be US$6oo million,25 orabout PI ,500 million at present prices, roughly 20 per cent of currentannual GDP. Such non-productive military expenditures - for otherthan their employment-generating benefits - are extremely difficult tojustify in themselves, and even more so in relation to the alreadyexisting problems of Botswana: notably, acute rural poverty, urbancrime which is worsened by an under-funded police force, and of coursethe serious lack of public housing.The construction of this new military complex has further createdbafflement and unease among neighbouring states. Tokyo Sexwale, thePretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging chairman of the African National23 Midweek Sun, I8 November 2992.24 Figures and quotation from Keith Jefferis, 'The I 992 Budget', in Barclays Botswana EconomicReview, Ist quarter, I992, p. 25. 25 Business Day, I3 September I993.
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