If Motswaledi was killed, surely Intelligence had a hand in it

Richard Moleofe | Friday August 8, 2014 13:41

 

The moment Gomolemo Motswaledi’s death was announced, it seems almost the whole nation thought he was deliberately killed. This was even before we could get the faintest details of the said accident. One thing I am certain of is that no single person or group peddled these rumours; rather almost every individual had this opinion on their point of contact with the news. As has always been the case, someone is going to lay the blame at the door of the media for the current swelling public opinion. But take my word for it, the media had no role in building the current public opinion.

It seems the level of mistrust by the public on its own government is at its epitome when taking into account the current atmosphere existing within the public sphere. For a number of years now, the media has cautioned us on the growing dictatorial tendencies of our current political crop as these leaders are certainly growing some form of intolerance on its own people. One thing we can agree on is that the government has been slowly losing public trust and the Motswaledi freak accident has literally pulled the rug from under the leadership’s feet.

At the moment the only hope the nation clings on to is the results of the forensic investigations. As we may all be aware, scientific results never lie and can be repeated over and over but the end will remain the same. This science will in this case vindicate or vilify the current public view on the death of Motswaledi. When I studied at the University of Cape Town I used to listen to Dr David Klatzow, a forensic science expert who had a weekly programme on Cape Talk 567. I literally got schooled on the science and I never would miss a single episode on the series. Klatzow has been involved in several cases where he became a key witness and directed the cases to their conclusion. One of the key cases he took part in was the poisoning of Reverend Frank Chikane as well as the Helderberg crash. He is consistently engaged by the insurance industry to investigate suspicious car crushes and freak fires. With this science in mind, we can have a higher level of certainty in that the science will reveal what may have been concealed in this particular case.

Honestly speaking, any government that perceives political opponents as enemies would be suspect in a case such as the one pending the forensic science results. And like any government, ours here would deploy the existing intelligence apparatus to do the job of eliminating its “enemies”. This would not be a new trend as other governments including that of the United States have done the same in the past. The recent such accident that comes to mind is the one that took the life of Morgan Tsvangirai’s wife in Zimbabwe. This accident looked more genuine than the one which killed Motswaledi. One country which in the past was notorious for killing political ‘enemies’ was Malawi during the Banda era. Several countries have used accidents as their mode of elimination as opposed to bombs and snipers. It’s usually easy to believe and harder to disprove.

I do not want to run with the current public opinion which is not based on any hard core science. Forensic science should tell us exactly what happened. But one thing I can profess with a high level of certainty and confidence is that if Motswaledi was killed, there is no way that the intelligence organs would not have been tasked with the kill. It is sad to note that most African governments have sustained themselves with the existence of intelligence organs and Botswana should prove to its public and the world that they are not found in this league of nations. Bearing this in mind, the opposition should arise to the call of taking their own security seriously.  After the unexplainable attack on Sedirwa Kgoroba who is a parliamentary candidate for the UDC at his home by unknown men only known to the creator, UDC should have scrambled a security plan and placed a security detail on the more vulnerable personalities. With Major General Mokgware in the UDC kraal, they should have done better on the aspect of security. In fact I have in the past harboured personal fears for the safety of this general because of my better understanding of the circumstances of his unceremonious departure from BDF. His “firing” from the job had been done from the highest office in the land and the General went on to compound the issue by joining an opposition party that directly broke away from the ruling BDP.

While the finger pointing is directed at government, the Office of the President should absolve itself by providing a security detail for all prominent opposition politicians in order to arrest the developing trend in the country. The government of the people by the people should address the fears of the people it serves. In the US which is the world’s most acclaimed democracy, opposition politicians are given the best form of security when they run for the position of president. In our case both Boko and Saleshando should have long been given the same VIP protection. In fact this should be provided for in our legal instruments.

Let us all be objective and eliminate any biasness on this particular issue. If all scientific reports go against public perception and confirm what we may not want to hear in that this indeed was a genuine accident, then government still remains with a burden on its shoulders in redressing the current public opinion. Over the years our government has created an atmosphere of fear in the country. For this they will require a massive public relations exercise in order to correct the existing public opinion about our intelligence organs. If there is sufficient proof as is the case now; that MI was used back in the days to infiltrate the BNF and cause a split, then politically speaking that’s sufficient basis for public fear of DIS. But relying on the current public opinion, our government has totally lost all the moral aptitude and rectitude to rule us as mortal men and women in our land.

*Richard Moleofe is a retired military officer