Two years ago, Botswana’s the Speaker of the National Assembly Margaret Nasha had to call Serowe North MP Tshekedi Khama, younger brother of President Ian Khama, to order, after he repeatedly using the word “Makwerekwere” in parliament.

The derogatory word is generally used to refer to African foreigners living in Botswana and South Africa.

The younger Khama’s gripe was that the Ministry of Infrastructure, Science and Technology was favouring foreign companies at the expense of local contractors.

At the time, there was an ongoing feud between the government and a Kenyan company, Tectura International, a consulting company that had been contracted to undertake renovations at the Gaborone National Stadium.

The government rejected the workmanship, saying that even after repairs, the facility did not meet Fifa standards, an accusation Tectura director, Bendan Githae countered by saying the compromised standards were due to insufficient funds.

A month after Khama’s statement in parliament, Githae decided it was time to pack his bags and leave Botswana, a country he had lived in for over 18 years.

Perhaps Githae’s case and those of other Kenyan nationals who were fired from their jobs by the Botswana government during the same period buttresses former Botswana president Festus Mogae’s misgivings about his country’s policy towards foreigners.

Mogae told the African Leadership Forum on July 31 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: “We were a small country that ran an open economy and open society. But our present government has expelled over 2,000 foreign professionals over the past six years.”

More than 300 Nigerians were reportedly deported from Botswana earlier this year.

High-profile figures have not been spared either, with South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema denied entry into the country shortly before the recently held Botswana General Election.

Hollywood actor Rick Yune was also declared a prohibited immigrant when he wanted to go to Botswana to support his friend Duma Boko, president of Botswana’s main opposition party, Umbrella for Democratic Change.

According to media reports in Botswana, Africa’s richest man, Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote, also had his visa application rejected earlier this year.

Gordon Bennett, the lawyer representing the marginalised Bushmen community, who have been battling the government in court for the reinstatement of rights to their ancestral land, also faced the same predicament when he wanted to travel to Botswana to represent his clients in court.

Clearly, dislike for foreigners is on the rise in Botswana, with Zimbabweans, the biggest foreigner population in the diamond-rich country, becoming the major target of a growing vigilante movement.

Though rather less blatant than what happened in South Africa a while back, xenophobia knows no boundaries. It happens everywhere and anywhere; in homesteads, at work place, public service institutions such as hospitals, police stations, prisons, cattle posts, bars and even in political meetings.

“I was surprised when I was told I could not get a job I had applied for because the law society will sabotage law firms that employ Zimbabwean attorneys,” said a Zimbabwe-born and trained attorney, who requested not to be named for fear of victimisation.

Behind closed doors, house helps are abused and treated to long working hours without rest; at the cattle posts, foreign farm managers and herd boys can go for months without pay and in extreme cases are physically assaulted when they ask for their dues.

Fortune Nyambosi, a former footballer who once plied his trade in Botswana, says he witnessed the cruel treatment of foreign workers firsthand and says soccer players were not spared either, especially if the team lost a match.

“I know of housemaids in Gaborone who would work for a month, and when they ask to be paid at the end of month, their employer would call the police to report them as illegal immigrants, something they knew when they were hiring them. They would either be deported or caned. The bottom line is that they would not receive their money,” said the now Cape Town based footballer.

The abuse of immigrant labour is epitomised by an incident early this year when an employer lost his temper and shot his Zimbabwean employee four times. The man’s arms had to be amputated following the shooting, which happened after the employee asked for his payment for clearing two hectares of land.

“I think that was a bit of an extreme case because people here are not violent like we see in South Africa. They are only verbal about it and seem proud of it,” says Grace Bango, who has lived in Gaborone for 17 years.

Despite having done all her schooling in the country, the 22-year-old says she and her parents still struggle to get citizenship.

“I’ve literally grown up here; the only home I know is Botswana although my parents are Zimbabwean. But our applications for citizenship have been turned down twice.” The University of Botswana student says while in primary and secondary school, she was “made to feel alien.”

Asian immigrants too, especially Indians, face the same hostility.

“I have a Sri Lankan friend whose permits were revoked and he was told to wind up his business and leave in a month,” said Wabo Shabani, a university lecturer. But that was not all Shabani’s friend encountered in a botched business partnership with a Batswana that saw him lose his $3,150 investment. And he got little help from the police, supposedly because of his nationality.

“My friend went into business with some locals and was required to deposit money into the company’s joint account. Within a short space of time a withdrawal had been made and when he made a police report he was told to go and resolve it amicably,” she said.

Dr Eugene K. Campbell from Oxford’s International Migration Institute did a study aimed at obtaining opinions of Batswana on immigrants in 2003. His observation was that Botswana citizens of Indian descent are viewed with considerable suspicion and dislike by other citizens of the country.

Dr Campbell’s survey questionnaire was administered to a sample of 781 male and female Batswana in the country’s three urban centres. The findings of the study showed that this attitude was influenced by a combination of nationalism and economic factors.

“There is a strong desire to preserve the fruits of economic prosperity for citizens alone. Europeans and North Americans however are accepted as part of the Botswana society and among those who may apply to become citizens of Botswana,” he wrote.

“The government must acknowledge that the label ‘makwerekwere’ does not stop sexual relations between foreigners and locals. As a matter of fact, most local women prefer foreigners,” the expert added. But while some local women may prefer foreigners, families do not condone their daughters marrying them.

By mid-2013, Botswana had deported 22,675 Zimbabweans, a figure 30 per cent higher than those deported in 2012.

The diamond-rich nation’s approach to immigrants remains in sharp contrast to one of the seven pillars of Vision 2016, a strategy to propel the country’s socio-economic and political development.

Under the strategy, Botswana is to be a compassionate, just and caring nation. But it seems the care and compassion is only to be shared among locals.
Africa Review