02 Jul 2024

Batswana should appreciate Sir Seretse Khama more as a fountain of knowledge, ideas and wisdom from which they continue to drink to quench their thirst in their desire for a better Botswana.

This was said by the Minister for State President, Mr Kabo Morwaeng during Sir Seretse Khama Day commemoration in Gaborone on July 1.

He said Sir Seretse Khama was a true republican, democrat and a Pan Africanist par excellence as well as an embodiment of everything that Batswana aspired for.

Mr Morwaeng said Sir Seretse Khama executed his role as a national leader with utmost diligence, commitment and dedication, taking the country from poverty to independence and set it on path to an economic success story that it had come to be known.

He said the commemoration was therefore important to pause and reflect what the founding father would have wanted the country to become in the future. 

“This day should not just be another day presenting an opportunity for relaxation, but a day to reflect where we come from as a people, the challenges we had to endure to get where we are today and where we want to go,” he said.

Meanwhile, former senior assistant commissioner and head of special branch, Botswana Police Service, Mr Adolph Hirschfeld said coupled with his sense of humour and love for people, Sir Seretse Khama was a firm decision maker.

Mr Hirschfeld said Sir Seretse Khama sanctioned his parallel transfer from the statistic office to the police department, even though it caused some great deal of discomfort amongst some members of Parliament simply because the then police commissioner was also a Hirschfeld.

He reiterated that Sir Seretse Khama was well known for his ability to make difficult decisions; ‘popular or unpopular he would make decisions’.

He said he had the privilege to understudy the first president’s leadership style, citing that Sir Seretse Khama would allow everyone an ample opportunity to express themselves before any decision was taken during his meetings. He said the first president valued people’s views and encouraged their full participation during meetings as he believed in the unity of the nation.

“And he was never apologetic in sharing his ideas of how to achieve that vision. For example, he was not convinced that the teaching of other indigenous languages in Botswana schools would alone bring about national unity,” he said. 

Mr Hirschfeld said he believed that there were other equally important national issues that deserved attention and because of this conviction some people labelled him a tribalist, while he was not.

He said Sir Seretse Khama espoused freedom of individuals and it was against this principle that Botswana ratified the Geneva Conventions on the Status of Refugees in displaced patterns.

Consequently, and against all odds, Mr Hirschfeld said Botswana started accepting political refugees from the minority rule states in Southern Africa and subsequently from other African countries.

He said in 1978 Sir Seretse Khama got an honorary medals in recognition of Botswana’s contribution of the refugee course and gratitude to the fact that although Botswana’s population was very small at the time, there were already 25 000 political refugees. Resolute in his decision making ability, Mr Hirschfeld said Sir Seretse Khama adopted a policy to trade with apartheid South Africa, when the rest of Africa advocated sanctions.

Additionally, he consolidated Botswana’s position by forging close ties with independent African states such as Tanzania and Zambia, he said. Ends