Mokone\u2019s transgression was to publish a report about a caraccident involving President Ian Khama, who was driving alone through Gaboroneat night and failed to report the incident.<\/p>\n
The reporter, Edgar Tsimane, has skipped the country,claiming his life has been threatened, and is in exile in Pretoria. He, too,faces a possible sedition charge and believes it is not safe for him to gohome.<\/p>\n
This is the first time a Botswana journalist has beencharged with sedition, which lawyers say carries a maximum three-year jailsentence.<\/p>\n
The case has fuelled the country\u2019s decline in world pressfreedom and governance rankings. Botswana ranks as partially free, according toFreedom House, which is a significant drop compared to its previous position.<\/p>\n
The journalist\u2019s arrest is \u201cat odds withBotswana\u2019s strong tradition of democratic governance\u201d.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Reacting to the news, the United States state departmentsaid it was deeply concerned about Mokone\u2019s arrest, as it was inconsistent withthe fundamental freedoms of expression and the press, and \u201cat odds withBotswana\u2019s strong tradition of democratic governance\u201d.<\/p>\n The Sunday Standardstory appeared on the front page on September 1 2014, and was headlined\u201cPresident hit in car accident while driving alone at night\u201d.<\/p>\n Tsimane obtained his information from staff members atGaborone\u2019s Montana Lodge, where the other party to the accident, a Zambiannational, Mabita Kaunda, was staying on the night of the accident, on SaturdayAugust 23.<\/p>\n Kaunda, said to be a regular at the lodge, was notinterviewed directly by Tsimane and subsequent efforts to trace him wereunsuccessful.<\/p>\n According to an employee at the lodge, Kaunda was visiblyshaken when he came into the hotel and told them that, at 10pm, he hadrear-ended a black Range Rover driven by Khama. He allegedly said that hisvehicle, a Jeep, was removed by the presidential guard, who then drove him tothe lodge.<\/p>\n The president is known to use a black Range Rover forprivate purposes.<\/p>\n Although Kaunda had minor head and neck injuries, accordingto hotel staff, he had agreed with one of Khama\u2019s aides that he would not seekhospital treatment. Staff said they gave him painkillers.<\/p>\n Kaunda had minor head and neck injuries [but], according to hotel staff,<\/strong><\/em> agreed with one of Khama\u2019s aides that he would not seekhospital treatment.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n They also said the Zambian left the next day, claiming tohave been given a replacement Jeep by the presidential guard, who kept hisvehicle. Tsimane said he was unable to establish why or whether this was done.<\/p>\n Police told the SundayStandard<\/em> that no one had reported the alleged accident.<\/p>\n Tsimane said in his article that, \u201cin an apparent bid toconceal the accident, the president violated the country\u2019s road traffic lawsand failed to report the accident within the prescribed 48 hours\u201d.<\/p>\n He insists that his sources were credible. \u201cThey areordinary people who could not be suspected of harbouring any motives againstthe president.<\/p>\n \u201cEven when they were questioned by our lawyers to establishthe veracity of the story, they were consistent in recounting what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n Shortly after publication, Mokone received a threateningletter from the attorney general, Athaliah Molokomme, which seemed related toan entirely different incident, involving different vehicles in a differentplace and at a different time.<\/p>\n Molokomme\u2019s letter referred to a car crash that took placeon the morning of August 23 in the village of Dibete, 120km north of Gaborone.<\/p>\n It said: \u201cOn Saturday 23rd August 2014, at about 09:00, acollision took place between a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado SUV and a private FordRanger on the A1 road at Dibete.<\/p>\n \u201cHis excellency the president was neither the driver of nora passenger in either vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n Molokomme denied anyone was injured in the accident, addingthat \u201cno compensation or new vehicle has been given or offered to the driver orowner of the Jeep\u201d.<\/p>\n The Jeep driver \u2014 another discrepancy from the earlierreference to \u201ca Ford Ranger, not a Jeep\u201d \u2014 \u201cwas not taken to any location bythe presidential guard\u201d, she added.<\/p>\n She said her office \u201chas taken a very serious view of thismatter, which suggests that head of state has undermined his oath of officeunder the Botswana Constitution, in which he undertook to faithfully anddiligently discharge his duties and perform his functions in the high office ofpresident of the Republic of Botswana.\u201d<\/p>\n She demanded that Mokone provide a written explanation forhis conduct by midday Wednesday September 3 and the publication of a fullretraction in the Sunday Standard<\/em>. Herefused to do both.<\/p>\n There has been much speculation over why the news report sparked such a fierce reaction.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n The sedition charge that followed surprised many people, whosuspect that Khama is behind it. There has been much speculation over why thenews report sparked such a fierce reaction.<\/p>\n The chairperson of the Law Society of Botswana, LawrenceLecha, said, for the offence under section 50(1) to be established prima facie<\/em>,the prosecution had to show that the article incited \u201chatred or contempt\u201dagainst Khama.<\/p>\n Lecha said the society \u201ccannot believe\u201d that the articlecould cause \u201cthe eventualities contemplated by section 50 (1) of the PenalCode. The issue was not whether the article or parts of it were true or false,but \u201cwhether the facts and circumstances can sustain a charge of sedition\u201d.<\/p>\n Tsimane is in South Africa on a three-month permit, althoughhe has applied for political asylum. He insists he is not afraid of facing thelaw but he was advised to skip the country by a close contact in theintelligence service.<\/p>\n \u201cI received intelligence that, if I really valued my life, Ishould seek sanctuary beyond Botswana\u2019s borders,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Edgar Tsimane, the journalist who wrote the article, remains in exile, and the editor Outsa Mokone will appear in the high court next month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22368,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/amabhungane.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/250x106.jpg\")
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