Botswana 'bribing' San
2004-06-23 13:08
Johannesburg - Botswana's President Festus Mogae is drawing criticism for handing out food and blankets to resettled San from the Kalahari, just weeks before a landmark court case on their land claim is to begin.
South African lawyer Glyn Williams, representing the 241 San, questioned the timing of Mogae's visit last week to New Xade, where the indigenous people have been resettled from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.
"Two or three weeks before the trial is to start, for the first time ever, the president arrives in New Xade and starts handing out expensive gifts.... Is he trying to influence the court ?" Williams demanded this week.
A court in Botswana is to begin examining the case on July 5 with a tour of the areas in the Kalahari Game Reserve from which the San were evicted and where some of them have returned.
The San are asking the high court to rule that their eviction was illegal under Botswana law which states that the Kalahari Game Reserve was created to protect their lifestyle.
But the Botswana government contends that the San, descendants of the indigenous people who have lived in the Kahalari for tens of thousands of years, have abandoned their traditional lifestyle and become "settled agriculturists".
"The intention of the government is to bring the standards of living of Basarwa up to the level obtained in the rest of the country," says a government fact sheet on what they term as the relocation of the people.
British-based Survival International, which has taken up the San's cause, said Mogae urged the residents of New Xade, 800km northwest of Gaborone, not to go back to the reserve.
"To pretend that this visit is not a blatant attempt to influence the court case... is just naive," said Survival's director Stephen Corry in a statement received on Wednesday.
Thirteen witnesses including two experts are to testify on behalf of the defence when hearings begin in New Xade in the days following the court inspection which is set to be completed by July 7.
Survival International contends that the San have been driven out of the Kalahari reserve to make way for diamond mining, Botswana's top hard currency earner.