SANCO MARCHES TO EMBASSY

The South African National Civic Organization (SANCO) will be embarking on a March to the Botswana Embassy today (Friday) to register its dissatisfaction with the government of Botswana about their continued undermining of the integrity of the South African State in collaboration with a South African right wing organisation, Afri-forum, through fabricated and false allegations.

The government of Botswana’s continued pursuit of allegations characterised by the Botswana High Court Judge, Dr Zein Kebonang, as fabrication and false continues to utilise the right wing organisation AfriForum as their litigation partner in their illogical and bizarre demand for Mutual Legal Assistance.

This while the government of Botswana knew very well of international avenues that avail to them as diplomatic recourse should they not find joy with their request from the South African government, within the frameworks of the SADC, the African Union and the United Nations.

That the Botswana government chose to jump into bed with right wing forces as opposed to many progressive legal formations in South Africa, both black and white, says a lot about the actual political intent by certain high ranking Botswana government officials entrusted with the criminal justice system who were behind undermining South Africa’s international reputation inadvertently characterising the country as a centre of money laundering and illicit money flows.

This clearly undermines the integrity of South Africa’s government, financial institutions and prominent citizenry as conduit for such illicit money flows and embezzlement. Had for instance the Botswana government and Afri-forum been sincere in their action against the South African government, they would have known that prominent South Africans and the African Union led a continental initiative precisely aimed at combating the illicit flow of money from African economies, including Botswana.

That they did not consider such credible platforms indeed says a lot about their fabricated agenda. This march by SANCO is therefore to voice out disappointment by a sister nation whose political and cultural ties with South Africa dates back to the cradle of human kind running throughout the years of struggle against colonialism and apartheid.

In contrast, we have observed what appears to be Afri-forum’s concerted efforts at tackling cases that affect prominent Black and African leaders which we believe props up white supremacy, and thereby, even if inadvertently, creates the distorted impression of black mediocrity as counterpoised against supposedly white excellence. This is the same organisation that in 2019 was taken by the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Human Rights Commission to the Equality Court for insisting that hoisting the apartheid flag was not hate speech. Right after that court case, a leader of Afri-forum tweeted the apartheid flag in defiance of the court’s verdict.

We reject this collaboration between the Botswana government and Afriforum as what we see as a neo-colonial agenda apparently aimed at reversing the gains of a new post-colonial and post-apartheid dispensation where South Africa, together with other fellow African States, continue to stand together in solidarity for a better future for all of the continent’s people.