01 Jul 2024

The founding President, Sir Seretse Khama will forever remain an honourable and distinguished son of the soil, who will often be remembered because of events and circumstances surrounding his life.

Speaking on behalf of President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi, Vice President, Mr Slumber Tsogwane said Sir Seretse could be described as a remarkable human being among the mortals of Earth.

“His leadership skills were apparent in the interconnected concepts of constitutionalist, nation building and Pan Africanism,” he said during the commemoration of Sir Seretse Khama Day in Gaborone yesterday.

Mr Tsogwane said these concepts were evidenced in his leadership practices and projected in his speeches at various platforms on Africa’s future.

He, thus described Sir Seretse as a nation builder, a non-racist and a constitutionalist who believed in multi-partyism as a laboratory for testing and defining democracy.

“His Pan Africanism was reflected in his deep support of the objectives of the then Organisation of African Unity, where he pledged that his government will support any practical measures proposed to promote African cooperation and unity,” said Mr Tsogwane.

He said the commemorations of Sir Seretse Khama Day were therefore, important to provide a platform to highlight such contributions as a father of the nation. The Vice President observed that in his nation building project, Sir Seretse worked with a team of equally committed political actors, civil servants and technocrats who were persuaded in the ideal of belonging together.

“We pride ourselves to date on being a united, stable and democratic nation state and society where unity in diversity is acknowledged, cherished and celebrated. It is not a happenstance, but an outcome of a project of determination inspired by a deep sense of devotion to the notion of nation building” he said.

At a more party level, Mr Tsogwane also credited Sir Seretse for leading the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) delegation that participated in the 1963 constitutional conference negotiating self-government for Batswana as well as the establishment of organs of the state for running that government.

He said during his era, most liberal democratic constitutional documents which made provisions for fundamental political and civil rights were influenced largely by the British government, and that as a primary regime for human rights, the task for Sir Seretse and his team was, therefore, a mammoth one. 

“Nonetheless, he and his team managed, and Sir Seretse turned out to be a faithful adherent to the adopted constitution, and this is the mark of a constitutionalist,” he said.

Mr Tsogwane  said upon assuming power first as a Prime Minister and later as President, Sir Seretse further oversaw far reaching development policy choices and decisions, such as organising the economy and distributing state revenues, which were by then limited. Ends