Khama demands P1.5m from former BDP councillor
Says the BDP staunch supporter defamed him through a Facebook post
Former President Ian Khama has demanded that former Botswana Democratic Party ( BDP) Specially Elected Councillor Macdonald Peloetletse pay him damages for defamation in the sum of P1,500,000.
The former President whom Peloetletse served as a specially elected councillor at Gaborone City Council during his tenure threatened to take legal action against Peloetletse if he fails to do so. Khama has also demanded an apology on the same platform used to defame him. Ever since he left the ruling BDP to join its breakaway party, the Botswana Patriotic Front ( BPF), Khama has always clashed with his former colleagues even those who were deemed to be his close associates during his time. The demands made by the former president come after Peloetletse published a statement on Facebook saying, “I am a former soldier. Everything former President SKI Khama said here is a lie. “In fact soldiers suffered more under Khama than under his predecessors. He actually stole money that the UN had paid to the soldiers who went for the operations and paid them less than a quarter of what was actually due to them. “Unhappy soldiers took the BDF to court and won, the BDF is still struggling to pay the debts! Khama can fool some people, but not all the people and all the time. In fact many soldiers, serving, retired and those that resigned and were in the operations during Khama’s time get even more annoyed for such disrespectful statements by Ian Khama!!” According to Khama’s lawyers Ramalepa Attorneys, the impugned statement is substantively false, wrongful and unlawful. The lawfirm in a letter written to Peloetletse indicated that in the event he ( Peloetletse) fails to pay the amounts of damages demanded “herein, to retract the impugned publication and to apologize to our client, we are instructed to institute legal proceedings against you for the recovery of the aforesaid damages, and to seek, inter alia, costs on attorney and own client scale”. Attorney Tebogo Tladi who authored the letter indicated that the impugned statement was published with the intention to injure Khama in his personality, good name and dignity. The statement is therefore defamatory of his character, has violated his right to a good name, and has unlawfully damaged his good reputation, he added. Tladi stated that they have therefore been instructed by their client to demand, as “we hereby do, that you publish on the same forum a retraction and a full and unconditional apology to client within three calendar days of receipt of this letter - and that you deliver such apology in a formal letter to the Office of the Former President Khama”. In response Peloetletse, who said contents of the letter are being given attention, demanded proof to the effect that he is the one who authored the said allegations. “I am reliably informed that the alleged comments of which I am accused, and which have apparently caused your client ‘ great emotional indigestion’ were made in response to public comments by your client in which he ( Khama) accused the Government of Botswana of inter alia “misusing public funds on personal agendas” in effect accusing members of government of stealing public funds for personal use. “I therefore wonder in the spirit of gentlemanly discourse, whether such statement by your client were not in themselves defamatory of our government and our country,” said Peloetletse.
Peloetletse also asked the lawfirm to advise whether Khama has been endowed with a “special particular privileged status” that restricts the citizens of this country from commenting or responding to public statements made by Khama in the course of political discourse especially when made on a public forum and relate to matters of general public concern. He said even though he does not represent government he wonders if Khama would in the same spirit be willing to retract such reckless, unproven and defamatory statements and also pay government compensations.