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

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CORRUPTION AND MISMANAGEMENT 505checking mechanisms. These throughout were either absent orineffective.Kgabo made clear the long-running nature of the problems heinvestigated, and much the same applied to the operations consideredby Christie. As noted, leading politicians and bureaucrats wereidentified in both reports; Mmusi was particularly prominent, rankingnext only to President Masire in both the Cabinet and the ruling BDP.Sandy Grant examined the possibility that 'key members of thegovernment knew very well what was happening but hoped somehowto keep matters quiet.' Chance events, like the death by car accidentof the BHC's General Manager, made this impossible. When, as Grantnoted, Joseph Letsholo's personal safe was opened, 'so many of the toppeople in government were sufficiently concerned about what was in[it] that they had all to be present'."3 Rather as Kgabo seemed tosuspect, the BHC scandals implied a failure in the entire governmentsystem, precisely in its highest echelons.The Immediate Reactions of the Ministers InvolvedThose accused and named in the Kgabo and Christie reports have ingeneral insisted, sometimes belligerently, that no personal wrong-doinghad occurred, and that they held no responsibility for the consequences.These denials have been persisted with even after the Commissions hadreported and their findings accepted by both Parliament andGovernment. Segebo allowed that he had indeed allocated BHC housesto friends as Assistant Minister of Local Government while there weresome 20,000 on the formal waiting-list for housing. He was subsequentlymoved, with no demotion, to a similar post in the Ministry of Financeand Development Planning, and continued to maintain, at least untilhis resignation from the Cabinet in February I993, that 'I don't thinkI did anything wrong', and 'I don't take the blame for not detectingproblems at the BHC '.14 Quasi-judicial judgements, society's opinions,and the norms of responsible government were intransigently ignored.After being dropped from the Cabinet, Mmusi and Kwelagobeorganised vociferous public rallies at which they vehemently proclaimedtheir innocence. The latter also declared at one of these that Kgabo andhis fellow commissioners had lied in their references to him."5 When the13 Sandy Grant, 'The Christie Report Revisited', in Midweek Sun (Gaborone), I3 January'993.14 Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone), 29 January 1993. See also ibid. i9 February I993, andMidweek Sun, 2 7 January I993.15 Referred to by President Masire at a press conference, and reported by the Botswana Gazette(Gaborone), 25 March I992.
506 KENNETH GOODGovernment's white paper on the report came to be debated in AprilI992, backbench MPs, some of whom had been named by Kgabo, weresaid to have described the commissioners as liars, and as vicious andwicked."6 After the report was approved by Parliament, Mmusi andKwelagobe announced that they were suing the Government over thematter.Such strong denials of responsibility constitute an apparent claimthat members of the ruling elite are above the law, or that they arecapable of interpreting the laws to their own advantage. Democraticnorms of accountability have been flouted, and the absence of anymoral code of exemplary leadership indicated. The conclusion seemsunavoidable that, if these attitudes remain unchanged within the ranksof the top leadership, corruption and mismanagement are unlikely toend. This became more probable when the BDP congress, in July I993,re-elected Kwelagobe and Mmusi to their former positions on thecentral committee, with commanding majorities. The ruling partyhad by direct implication sanctioned their previous wrongdoings.Kwelagobe described his re-election as a sign that he was innocent,adding for full measure that 'the BDP was convinced that I havecommitted no offence whatsoever'.17NEWSLINK AND PROJECT EAGLEOther questionable, seemingly unsound decisions have occurred orare in process. While these may not be of the same scandalousproportions as the BHC/Local Government embroglio, they involvethe diversion of large financial resources, and jeopardise nationalsecurity. They too cast doubts on the old reputation for efficient,prudent administration.In August i990, the South African Defence Force (SADF) was ableto establish the weekly Newslink Africa in Gaborone as an organ of itsmilitary intelligence. Botswana's capital had been chosen as a morefavourable location than alternative regional sites such as Windhoek orHarare. It was later reported in the then Weekly Mail ofJohannesburgthat the SADF's front men 'succeeded completely in persuading theBotswana government of the operation's bonafides', and that the guestspeaker at the official launching of the paper was the Minister ofCommerce and Industry.18 It closed in December i99i, some fourmonths after President F. W. de Klerk had announced that budgetary16 Mmegi, i6 April I992.17 Botswana Gazette, 25 August I993.18Weekly Mail (Johannesburg), 6 November 1992. The origin, r6le, and ramifications ofNIewslink were extensively considered in this issue.
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