Anger over Botswana appointment of AfriForum

Botswana lawyers have described their government’s appointment of AfriForum’s Gerrie Nel to help pursue a case involving businesswoman Bridgette Motsepe as ‘alarming’ and ‘ill-advised’. As previously reported in Legalbrief Today, Motsepe-Radebe has been accused of helping finance a ‘coup attempt’ against President Mokgweetsi Masisi in 2019 and Botswana’s request for assistance in the case has ‘inexplicably disappeared or (been) ignored’. Mboki Chilisa, vice-chairperson of the Law Society of Botswana, said the development could worsen relations between the two countries even further. ‘We are all extremely disappointed by the appointment of AfriForum, given what AfriForum stands for. It’s not something we expected or thought government could do,’ he said. The Daily Maverick reports that he described the NGO as ‘a group which seeks to stand in opposition to transformation, and a group that seeks to stand in the way of trying to redress inequalities of the past in SA’. He added that the timing is ‘bizarre’, given that there is a global wave against racism ‘and in this sensitive and delicate time you decide to engage AfriForum … that is very alarming’.

Full Daily Maverick report