30 Oct 2013

For the record, the Office of the President wishes to once more reassure the public that neither the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) nor anyone else in government was involved in the construction of H.E. the President’s home at Mosu, as was falsely alleged in last Friday’s (25/10/13) edition of the Guardian newspaper.

Given the gravity of the false charges that were raised in the said Guardian article, this office believes that it is in order to communicate additional details about the construction of His Excellency’s private home, which as we have previously stated, was carried out entirely at his own private expense.

Initial construction by a private company at the site began shortly after His Excellency was allocated the plot in 2001, not 2006 as claimed by the Guardian.

In 2006 another private company took over the project and was subsequently responsible for finishing His Excellency’s house and adjacent structures, including a house for one of his brothers.

The President’s house is a single bedroom cottage with a kitchen and a sitting room, while his brothers between them have a two bedroom cottage and a single room chalet. There is also an additional single room chalet at the compound.

During all phases of the construction undertaken at the compound, that is on the homes of H.E. the President, his brothers and the guest chalet, no Government personnel were engaged. Neither was any government money spent on the structures.

These basic facts completely contradict the Guardian’s fanciful claim that “two years before President Ian Khama’s inauguration, a team of officials, including Botswana Defence Force (BDF) officers, was dispatched to Mosu to begin construction of Khama’s private holiday compound complete with airfield at taxpayers’ expense. Led by the BDF and some officials from the buildings department, the team put together a multimillion Pula palace in Khama’s private land...”

It may be further noted that the planned airstrip at Mosu will be a simple gravel runway. It is located outside of His Excellency’s compound, on public land and shall thus fall under the jurisdiction of the BDF and Civil Aviation Authority of Botswana (CAAB).

Given that this office accurately responded in less than 24 hours to a written questionnaire received by us from the Guardian, in order to meet the newspaper’s Wednesday deadline, we find it deceitful for them to subsequently suggest that they somehow “caught us off guard” or we were desperately trying to keep a “top secret under wraps.” We thus also dismiss with the utmost contempt the Guardian newspaper’s truly deceitful claim of a “failed cover up”.

It is our firm view the onus is otherwise now on the editors of the Guardian to provide evidence for their heretofore unsubstantiated allegations or make a full retraction.

Finally, we note with dismay that the Guardian’s latest set of slanders is consistent with a pattern of false reports by the newspaper, which in our view are clearly aimed at besmirching the good name not only of H.E. the President but other members of his family. ENDS