Former Botswana president Ian Khama denied that he was ‘a fugitive of justice’, but didn’t want to divulge how he has been able to stay in South Africa for more than five months.
Former Botswana president Ian Khama failed to show up at a court in Botswana on Thursday because, he said, he was never served with a summons. Khama, who has been in South Africa since November, was charged with the. “My lawyers went there to indicate that I haven’t been served with a summons and that is why I wasn’t there.”
Khama said he received a report from a “credible” private security company which confirmed the information he’d been getting from people he trusts in Botswana, “that there was an attempt by [Botswana President Mokgweetsi] Masisi to eliminate me before the 2024 elections”. This, he claimed, was the reason he was charged and why he will be expected to return home – something he said he would not do.
Meanwhile, on official government business, ministers from Botswana had a warm reception in Pretoria on Thursday where they met their counterparts from South Africa for the first bi-national commission between the two countries since 2017. International Relations Minister Naledi Pandor – who lived in Botswana in exile during the apartheid years – even had a few words in Setswana with her Botswana counterpart, Lemogang Kwape, after they delivered their opening statements to the meeting, which started more than an hour late.Kwape called for a moment of silence for those who had succumbed to Covid-19 as well as to the recent floods in KwaZulu-Natal.
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