International press and media attention focussed on Botswana at the end of April this year, as the country selected by the Zambian President, Dr Kenneth Kaunda, for his meeting with the South African Prime Minister. Meanwhile, Botswana itself has continued to be exposed to various forms of border violation and sporadic incursions by South African armed forces. Its situation was recently described in sharp terms by its President, Dr Quett Masire, when he said that Pretoria was trying to turn Botswana into 'another Lebanon', by taking the internal war against apartheid out beyond South Africa's own borders into neighbouring states.
Botswana's heavy dependence on South Africa for trade and transport outlets, and the interlocking of its economy with that of its apartheid neighbour, have prompted its government to maintain a position of strict neutrality as far as direct practical support for the armed liberation struggle is concerned. Botswana is nevertheless a fully participating member in the Front Line States grouping and has been subjected to the kinds of South African military aggression, incursions and destabilisation tactics familiar from Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and (on a much larger scale) Angola. In Botswana these include:
- border violations, incursions and exchanges of fire between Botswana Defence Force personnel, and South African forces operating from Namibia, particularly the Caprivi area
- illegal overflights of Botswana by South African military aircraft travelling between the Transvaal and Namibia, particularly the Caprivi area
- kidnappings and abductions, apparently by South African agents and directed particularly at the South African refugee population in Botswana
- infiltration of arms into Botswana for use by gangs and dissidents, and the consequent accelerating incidence of armed robberies and other violent crimes
- recruitment of Botswana citizens for service in or with the South African armed forces, particularly in Namibia
- acts of poaching, especially around the Chobe area in north western Botswana.
INCURSIONS
A series of protest notes has been sent to the authorities in Pretoria by the Botswana government following reports of border violations and other incidents involving South African troops. These have elicited little or no response from South Africa - beyond, in some instances, flat denials that the incidents referred to ever occurred.
In an interview at the end of 1981, President Quett Masire said that his government was becoming increasingly concerned at the indications that South Africa was fabricating evidence of attacks by Botswana, as a way of justifying counter-attacks by South African forces.
In April 1982, the second-in-command of the Botswana Defence Force, Brigadier Ian Khama, indicated that South African aggression against Botswana had been stepped up. During January and February 1982 in particular, he said, Botswana forces had been involved in a shoot-out with the South Africans in Caprivi. These incidents had continued, together with violations of Botswana's airspace.
At the end of April, the Botswana government again protested to Pretoria after South African troops were reported to have crossed into northern Botswana from Caprivi and fired on a BDF patrol.
SUBVERSION
Increasing evidence began to emerge during the second half of 1981 of the covert side of South Africa's destabilisation strategy in Botswana.
At the end of May 1981, the Botswana Vice-President and Minister of Local Government and Lands, Lenyelese Seretse, made a direct reference to the recruitment of dissidents by South Africa for purposes of subversion. He condemned Botswana nationals who had enlisted in the South African armed forces, notably for operations against SWAPO, and announced that the Botswana government had reliable information that several XaXa people from Ngamiland in north-western Botswana had enlisted in the South African Defence Force. (The XaXa community emigrated to Botswana from Namibia at the turn of the century and in due course acquired Botswana citizenship).
Further light was shed on the processes of recruitment involved by the Deputy Commissioner of the Botswana Police. Commenting on the discovery by police of illegal arms and ammunition in the village of Shakawe, not far from the Namibian border in north-western Botswana, he said that most of the villagers involved were believed to have earlier crossed into Namibia in search of work. The South African authorities had there persuaded them to join the armed forces.' Some of the unwilling soldiers have since then slipped back across the border and returned home with their military equipment, which they decided to keep for poaching game and for other personal reasons', he said.
The Basarwa or San (Bushmen) community in north-western Botswana are another group to have been exposed to South African army recruiting programmes. In 1980 a Canadian anthropologist, Professor Richard Lee, reported on the basis of his own extensive research among the !Kung San that 'a small but significant number of Botswana !Kung had crossed the Namibian border to join the South African army. This process had started in the early 1970s, when South African police patrols on the Namibian-Botswana border had contacted nomadic San bands and, using offers of clothing, tobacco and food rations, organised them into unarmed tracking units.
There have also been numerous indications that Pretoria is using the South African refugee community in Botswana as a cover for infiltrating agents of various kinds and provoking disturbance and disorder in the country. In July 1981, President Masire stated in an interview that while Botswana 'had absolutely no problems with refugees, what we have had have been problems with fellow-travellers - either people who have run away from South Africa because they are criminals or people who have come from South Africa because they are BOSS agents'. Considerable concern has been expressed by the Botswana police and other authorities at the large number of unregistered firearms being brought into the country from South Africa, leading to a spate of armed robberies by organised gangs posing as South African 'refugees'. The head of the Botswana CID has estimated that 70 per cent of such crime can be attributed to South African elements who have infiltrated the country.
