US embassy cable - 05GABORONE257

UNCLAS  GABORONE 000257 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED 
 
DEPT FOR AF/S DIFFILY 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, PGOV, BC, Human Rights 
SUBJECT:  A PAPER TOO FAR: U/BOTSWANA ACADEMIC SERVED 
WITH DEPORTATION ORDER BY GOB 
 
 
A) GABORONE 00056; B) GABORONE 00243 
 
1.  (SBU) Summary: The GOB served a 48-hour deportation 
order to U/Botswana academic and Australian citizen Prof. 
Kenneth Good on February 18.  Good is a 15-year Botswana 
resident and critical observer of its politics.  His 
attorneys obtained a stay of execution from the High 
Court on February 19.  The High Court has ordered the GOB 
to show cause for the deportation by March 7 and hearings 
were scheduled to begin on February 22.  At issue is a 
seminar paper entitled, "Presidential Succession in 
Botswana: No Model for Africa" co-authored by Good, a 
political scientist, and circulated prior to its 
presentation on February 23.  The paper criticizes 
Botswana's presidential succession, in which the 
president resigns in mid-term and the vice president 
automatically succeeds to the office, thereby creating a 
system of perpetual incumbency. Human rights and media 
organizations, as well as UB's faculty and staff union, 
have rallied around Good.  The incident reveals the 
current sensitivities within the ruling Botswana 
Democratic Party to criticism of any kind. Post has given 
Australian High Commission in Pretoria information on the 
case, per its request.  Post also recommends a demarche 
with like-minded countries should the deportation be 
carried out.  See para 15 for suggested press guidance. 
End summary. 
 
2. (U) On Friday afternoon, February 18, around 4:00 p.m. 
five officials from Botswana's Immigration Office 
delivered a notice of deportation as a prohibited 
immigrant to Professor Kenneth Good, of the Department of 
Political Science and Public Administration of the 
University of Botswana.  The notice, brought to his 
house, gave Good forty-eight hours to leave the country; 
i.e., until Sunday afternoon, thus calculated to leave 
him little recourse with official authorities as business 
hours would not resume until after the weekend.  No 
reason was given on the paper, signed by the chief 
immigration officer.  Kenneth Good, an Australian, is 
seventy-one and in frail health.  He has lived in 
Botswana for the past fifteen years with his daughter, 
now seventeen and attending secondary school in Gaborone. 
He has published extensively on political developments in 
the country.  His contract with the University of 
Botswana, which was renewed in fall 2004, runs until 
December 2006. 
 
3. (U) The Botswana Center for Human Rights immediately 
sprang into action, and within a few hours, Ken Good was 
represented by lawyers Dick Bayford (who stood as 
presidential candidate for one of the smaller opposition 
parties during the October 2004 election) and Duma Boko, 
one of the lawyers representing the First People of the 
Kalahari v. Govt. of Botswana in the case currently 
before the High Court.  They worked through the night to 
prepare a brief and found Judge Marumo willing to hear 
their case in chambers at the High Court on Saturday 
February 19.  The judge ruled the deportation null and 
void on technicalities, demanded that the government show 
cause, and commented that the order raised problems of a 
constitutional nature regarding freedom of expression. 
Marumo gave the government of Botswana until March 7 to 
show cause why Ken Good should be deported. 
 
4.(SBU) At issue is a double jeopardy for the U/Botswana 
academic.  Having the distinction of being deported from 
Ian Smith's Rhodesia in the late 1970s, Ken Good's left- 
liberal views have not deviated; he has been an 
unremitting critic of the establishment-any 
establishment-for the past decades and champion of the 
underdog.  After moving to the University of Botswana in 
the early nineties, he focused his attention on the 
elitist nature of Botswana's democracy. 
 
5. (SBU) He has regularly published articles challenging 
the received wisdom of Botswana as a model African 
nation.  In the past years, he has written and published 
several articles highlighting the plight of the Basarwa. 
These articles criticized the Government of Botswana's 
relocation policy.  Botswana journalists writing for 
independent newspapers who want an alternate view to the 
government line regularly consult Professor Good.  In 
short, Professor Good's status has been something like an 
official gadfly.  Although on occasion a GOB spokesperson 
would rebut Good's views, by and large the impression was 
cultivated that Good was tolerated, occupying something 
of an iconic place in the world of Botswana's public 
 
 
discussion. 
 
6.  (U)  The context for the deportation order is likely 
the combination of the following factors: South Africa's 
Human Sciences Research Council is currently engaged in a 
project of studying comparatively presidential succession 
in Africa.  A number of scholars were invited to draft 
papers on this topic: Professor Good and his then- 
colleague, Dr Ian Taylor, now at St. Andrews University 
in Scotland, co-wrote a paper, presented at a December 
2004 Cape Town conference.  Subsequently, the paper was 
revised and was to be presented by Professor Good in the 
regular Departnment of Political Science seminar series 
of the University of Botswana on Wednesday, February 23. 
Last week, Professor Good circulated copies of his paper 
prior to the presentation. 
 
7. (SBU) The scholarly paper, entitled, "Presidential 
Succession in Botswana: No Model for Africa", almost 
certainly is the cause of the GOB's deportation order. 
It is highly critical of both the automatic succession 
from president to vice president, and of the current Vice 
President, Ian Khama.  It cites instances of high-handed 
decision-making and harps on his military background as 
contributing to an increasingly visible authoritarian 
tendency within the ruling Botswana Democratic Party 
(BDP). In the GOB view, this is tantamount to subversion. 
 
8.  (U) But none of these points are new or original: in 
fact, Professor Good relies on media articles to 
substantiate his views.  All of the possibly inflammatory 
language in his paper in fact consists of direct quotes 
from these articles.  Moreover, the topic has been under 
public discussion for the past year or two.  What is 
interesting is the timing of this reaction on the part of 
the GOB. 
 
9. (SBU) The context for the ruling BDP is in fact the 
end of its long glide on the wings of power:  the party 
is, so to speak, encountering some updrafts and 
turbulence.  The 52 percent of the popular vote the BDP 
garnered in the October 2004 election set against 48 
percent for an admittedly divided opposition does herald 
a shift.  Moreover, losses in what were previously 
considered safe districts on the district council level 
are a BDP cause for concern.  The advent of personable 
young opposition leaders is another factor with which the 
BDP must contend. 
 
10. (SBU)  There are deep public reservations about the 
Vice President's political skills (Reftel A). Opposition 
politicians recently raised in parliament such issues as 
automatic succession to the presidency.  They also have 
questioned cabinet decisions such as the location of the 
second university (Reftel B).  It is the intersection of 
an opposition that is finding its way and an 
internationally known academic repeating these concerns 
that no doubt accounts for Ken Good's deportation order, 
by "presidential decree".  In fact, a member of the 
cabinet stated privately that the cause was Good had 
"circulated subversive documents." 
 
11.  (U) The University of Botswana has rallied round to 
express support for Ken Good.  The seminar in which the 
paper is to be presented is still scheduled for Wednesday 
afternoon at the University.  The Botswana Center for 
Human Rights issued a statement, "Deportation of Ken Good 
Violates Fundamental Human Rights Principles" on February 
21, and MISA (Media Institute of Southern Africa 
(Botswana) circulated a statement, "Deportation of 
Professor Kenneth Good on P.,I. Status".  Independent 
newspapers carry headlines and editorials decrying the 
GOB action: typical is The Monitor's February 21 
editorial, entitled, "Barbarisms that belong to a by-gone 
Era". 
 
12.  12.          (SBU)  Batswana attending a Bank of 
Botswana function February 22 told Charge that this was 
not the best step for the GOB to be taking and could 
damage its image abroad, especially considering the 
growing visibility of the Basarwa case.  She also heard, 
however, that a cabinet minister (not the one mentioned 
above) had commented that Professor Good was a "racist" 
and that it was about time this happened to him.  As we 
know, Batswana frequently use this language in response 
to criticism when they mean something else. 
13.  (U) As of this afternoon, February 22, hearings on 
Good's deportation order are scheduled at the High Court. 
 
 
Post is attending and will report on the outcome.   One 
of the attorneys representing Professor Good, Duma 
Boko, reported to MMEGI (independent daily newspaper), 
that he had received death threats from an "anonymous 
caller" yesterday at around noon.  His office passed word 
of the call to him in Mahalapye.  He did not know if it 
might be a prank. 
 
14. (U) International colleagues of Professor Good have 
indicated that they will contact media in the U.K. and in 
South Africa and alert them to this overreaction on the 
part of the GOB.  Charge and Pol/Econ Chief met with 
Professor Good February 22.  We also passed press reports 
to the Pretoria-based Australian High Commission, which 
contacted us for information. Post also recommends a 
demarche with like-minded countries should the 
deportation be carried out. 
15. (SBU) Post suggests the following press guidance on 
this issue:  The United States notes with concern the 
Government of Botswana's decision to deport Professor 
Kenneth Good as a prohibited immigrant.  This action 
undermines the freedom of expression guaranteed in the 
Constitution of the Republic of Botswana.  The United 
States notes that the deportation order is pending 
further judicial review.  We urge the Government of 
Botswana to continue its tradition of respecting freedom 
of speech as an essential component of a democratic 
society. 
AROIAN 
 
 
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