No tension between SA and Botswana
Outgoing SA High Commissioner sets record straight Money laundering case tested her diplomatic skills
Outgoing High Commissioner of South Africa to Botswana, Rosemary Mashaba has spoken out openly for the first time about her tenure and the challenges posed by the marathon money laundering case that implicates influential SA citizens.
By her confession, she said being involved in diplomatic talks of the much publicised matter which some citizens of both countries claimed had stretched the relations between the two countries had not only tested her diplomatic skills, but equally placed her “between a rock and a hard place”.
Speaking in an exclusive interview Mashaba said she had the benefit of being in a land of her people since Batswana and South Africans speak the same language.
The benefit made it easy to have very honest and open communication with Botswana government officials and other stakeholders and everybody she met.
“It was always about my accessibility and speaking the same language. But having said that, that in itself comes with its own unique challenges, in a sense that the barrier is removed by having a common approach, therefore people become too honest, they expected too as I am expected to understand simply because I am seen as a sister, however the benefit was more than the challenge”.
On the high profile money laundering case, Mashaba said public perception was that relations between Botswana and South Africa were strained based on those allegations.
“But, the reality was that it was the normal legal processes that were taking place and in the absence of a structured bi- national mechanism, that issue was blown out of proportion because it was not ventilated in a normal way where we would have engaged in a physical meeting between the two countries which is held on every year on alternative basis”.
She said it became a challenge for her because diplomacy is a process of managing perceptions. “I was caught between a rock and a hard place because I had to manage what the public is seeing, hearing at the same time making sure that the bilateral relations continue unhampered in any way”.
From the South African point of view my president sent a special envoy in the form of a Foreign Affairs minister then, Lindiwe Sisulu, she met with president Dr. Mokgweetsi Masisi. From that meeting a communiqué came out where both countries ensured that they confirm that the relationship is still strong, cordial and brotherly, and the legal issue will run its course as it is supposed to.
“Unfortunately last year, we had the same issue coming through the legal assistance where a South African lawyer Gerrie Nel was engaged by the government of Botswana to help with the issue of the MLA on the same matter that was discussed in 2018”.
Mashaba said the biggest challenge for her was trying to manage the whole matter and at the same time, trying to stay much strong without involving “myself in a space that belongs to the
legislative and not diplomatic space”.
There were attempts by many journalists to try and find out her personal opinion in this whole matter, but, “I told myself that I will not engage on something that is not my purview and, or not in the diplomatic purview”.
However, she insisted that in spite of all these, the relationship between Botswana and South Africa was “still strong as we have known because there was never any official reaction from the governments per- se, it was simply the matter of the courts, the prosecution offices and the department of Justice in South Africa.
“I think I tried to prove my diplomatic skills, so to speak- to say do you know when to engage- when to lay back, and at the end of it, as tempting as it was, as difficult as it was, the whole matter found expression where it was supposed to find expression which is the criminal justice purview more than in diplomatic relations”.
She was glad that finally both countries are engaging on the dates to hold the bi- national commission.
“I leave Botswana in high spirits because that engagement which was long overdue is finally going to take place in South Africa”.
Mashaba said she leaves a happy person because a lot has been achieved in her tenure. She is first to admit that there is always room for improvement.
“The cultural ties bind us more than the sovereignty so to speak.
The fact that we have more Batswana in South Africa than Botswana itself is a sign that most things are artificial our boundaries are more foreign that is what happened historically and
naturally”.
As for the BDP- ANC relationship since Botswana’s Independence in 1966, Mashaba said a lot of Batswana cut their political teeth in South Africa.
“We see a lot of Batswana who cut their economic, leadership, education in South African environment. It was only natural that we have a bond that will exist politically since then up to now into the future”.
The BDP has its policies and principles to house the comrades or struggle heroes of South Africa in spite of the present danger that the apartheid regime presented in the neighbourhood.
“The first conference in the ANC outside South African border was held in Lobatse.
That on its own shows that the involvement of Batswana such as Fish Keitsing, Mpho Motsamai in the struggle for South Africa, we still have stalwarts such as Michael Dingake who have been prisoners in Robben Island along with the first black president, Nelson Mandela who was here in Botswana”.
As much as the BDP was not a direct counterpart sister organisation of the ANC, but the BDP policies echoed those of the African continent to say that we will offer refuge the way that we can for our brothers in support of the struggle and in recognition of the struggle of South Africa and its liberation. “Those strong historical ties cannot be broken simply because the countries are looking at different levels of development and we still have mechanisms that work as bilateral - SACU, SADC levels - and even the support that we have at continental level”.