Mogae San visit defended

2004-06-23 20:30

Cape Town - There was nothing improper in Botswana President Festus Mogae's distribution of blankets to a San community last week, his special adviser Sidney Pilane said on Wednesday.

He was reacting to a claim by NGO Survival that Mogae was trying to influence a coming High Court challenge by the San to a government resettlement programme.

Survival said Mogae visited New Xade, one of the sites San were taken to after being removed from their ancestral land.

He had been accompanied by Pilane, who as a trained lawyer also heads the government team that will fight the court case.

The NGO said Mogae told the San they should not try to return to their land, and distributed handouts of food, clothing and blankets.

It said the visit was a blatant attempt to influence the court case.

However Pilane said Survival "never quite gets the facts correct".

He said Mogae's visit had nothing to do with the court case.

"He came to distribute some blankets and some articles of clothing to the residents of New Xade," he said.

"These had been offered by business people of Gaborone. They said he should decide who was in most need of those items."

"No reason to bribe"

Pilane said the San of New Xade, who preferred to be called Basarwa, were in fact not involved in the case. They chose their new home after they were "invited to resettle" by the government.

"So there is no reason to bribe them or induce them to do anything" he said.

"If I thought there was anything inappropriate about it I would have told him (the president). I do not with think there was anything inappropriate about it."

He said the San challenging the government were those who still remained in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

Pilane said he had been at nearby Ghanzi, consulting in preparation for the case, when he was advised at short notice of Mogae's visit to New Xade.

He had gone there as a matter of protocol, in his capacity as special adviser rather than as a lawyer in the case.

The court case, which begins on July 5 with an in loco inspection, is seen as a test case for San's rights across southern Africa.

The first wave of removals took place in 1997, and most of the community has since been relocated to settlements outside the park.

An initial challenge was dismissed on a technicality in April 2002.

However, the San appealed and won the right to have the case re-heard on its merits.

The Botswana government says it is moving the San to give them better access to facilities such as clinics and schools, and to turn them into farmers.

- SAPA