Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 11 November 2001

Botawana's President Festus Mogae does not consider himself a politician. Instead, he regards himself a developmental activist - a "Motswana trying to use his knowledge of economics to save Botswana".

This outlook has seen the 62-year-old Mogae take a passionate interest in his country's war against Aids. Unlike other leaders in the region, Mogae is leading the fight from the front, never missing an opportunity to speak about the disease.

When he took over the presidency from long-serving Sir Ketumile Masire two years ago, Mogae was criticised by opposition politicians and commentators when he insisted that his country's population faced possible "extinction" from Aids.

Mogae's reasons for leading the Aids fight are simple. The epidemic, he argues, will reverse all the gains Botswana has made in 35 years of independence.

"One of the bad things about war is that it kills the ablest and the youngest," says Mogae. "That is exactly what HIV/Aids is doing. It is killing the most productive sector."

Mogae's concern, and his steadfastness in spreading the message of Aids prevention, is understandable because Botswana is a treasure worth protecting. In the year 1999-2000, the economy registered a growth rate of 7.7%, which is expected to rise to 9% this year.

During the same period, unemployment dropped from 21% to 19%, a figure which he still views as "unacceptable".

But a recent government study has predicted that the effect of HIV/Aids will reduce the gross domestic product by 1.5% every year for the next 20 years, with the impact being felt most strongly in 2021.

This week, the soft-spoken Mogae, who is an economist by training, explained how the epidemic is undermining the economies of Southern Africa, threatening stability in the region and making poverty alleviation drives more difficult.

At least one third of Botswana's adults are infected with HIV. The Aids epidemic has cut life expectancy by 25 years, to 44. These frightening statistics have pushed Mogae's government into action.

The first step was to create a National Aids Council , which brings together government, the private sector and civil society. Then there is the national Aids agency, staffed by health professionals, which acts as the council's implementing agency.

In the meantime, the Botswana government has introduced strategies to prevent mother-to-child transmission and is negotiating with pharmaceutical firms to deliver anti-retrovirals to all those infected with HIV/Aids.

"As an average person you are struck by the impact and the sight of old people burying children," he says.

This is a message Mogae has been struggling to bring home to his colleagues in the Southern African Development Community, who appear more eager to involve themselves in continental conflicts rather than addressing the pressing issues of HIV/Aids.

Many protocols have been signed and committees have been established to deal with issues such as a uniform approach to science, which includes fighting Aids and health issues in general.

But most of these pacts are just gathering dust.

SADC's inertia frustrates Mogae. "Some of these protocols are in the process of being implemented, but maybe there is no conviction on the part of SADC.

"The problem with SADC is that we sign protocols every year. If we worked on one protocol each year and implemented it successfully before taking on another one, things would not be as bad."

Observers say there are two streams in the community. On the one hand there are the so-called hawks, led by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his Namibian and Angolan counterparts, Sam Nujoma and Eduardo dos Santos. Then there is another one, led by South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki and Mogae. Differences run so deep that democracies like Botswana and South Africa have often found themselves on a collision course with their colleagues.

One of the issues that has turned the forum upside down is the acceptance of the Democratic Republic of Congo into the SADC fold. As soon as then DRC President Laurent Kabila (later to be assassinated) was accepted into the organisation in 1997, SADC members found themselves sucked into the DRC conflict.

Mogae believes the hawks were responsible for dragging SADC into the war.

When Mogae chaired the SADC council of ministers between 1992 and 1996, he hoped that the community was going to take a more pragmatic approach to Aids.

The past three years have seen SADC dealing more with conflicts in the Great Lakes region than its core business of economic development. Such problems, warns Mogae, may have far-reaching implications for the latest continental developmental drive, the New Partnership for African Development. "The programme is in practical terms an idealist project. But it provides at least a programme for African leaders to look at themselves in retrospect. We have with us now a standard reference to which we can all aspire."

SADC's inability to control Zimbabwe's leader has dealt the organisation's reputation a major blow, particularly when its recommendations to Mugabe are ignored and dismissed. Mogae believes the region's economy has been adversely affected by the behaviour of Zimbabwe's leadership and its war veterans.

Ensuring Botswana's economic prosperity is one of Mogae's greatest passions. He has been involved with the country's astonishing development - from one of the poorest countries 20 years ago to now being Africa's third-best economic performer - since Botswana's independence.

After school, Mogae studied economics at both Oxford and Sussex universities in the United Kingdom.

On his return in 1968, he took up a post as planning officer and rose through the civil service to become finance minister and then head of state within 13 years.

One of the issues that have earned Mogae's anger is the increase in violent crime in Botswana, which comes despite the high growth rate and falling unemployment.

This has led to his strong views on the death penalty. He says it will be up to the Batswana people to decide on the future of capital punishment and that he will simply follow their recommendation.

Then comes a question he would rather not deal with: the hanging of Marietta Bosch. She was sentenced to death for shooting her best friend, Ria Wolmarans, in June 26 1996 so she could marry the widowed Tienie Wolmarans.

Judge Isaac Aboagye sentenced Bosch to death after finding the evidence against her overwhelming.

Her appeal against the sentence failed despite hiring British barrister Desmond de Silva, QC, who has a reputation for saving prisoners.

Mogae feels the international community's reaction smacked of racism.

He says while he was prepared to listen to his colleagues from South Africa, organisations like Amnesty International put pressure on the country not only over the death penalty but to save Bosch simply because she was a white woman.

"The law is supposed to be blind," says Mogae. "But in this matter we suddenly found ourselves in the dock. If our laws had proven that Bosch had committed a crime, then justice had to take its course."

With Botswana playing an increasingly influential role in African politics, Mogae appears set to grow in stature as a statesman, but he is quick to brush aside any attempt to give him personal credit for his country's status.

"I just happen to have an above average understanding of politics and economics ," he says.

He quotes a Setswana proverb: "Ka seTswana gatwe mmapodi ga a ipone se se mo tlhogong. Literally translated, it means nobody is able to see the top of his head. So you are free to make your own judgment, but I like to see myself as a simple Motswana in Botswana," he says.

For example we asked what makes this man who has become a symbol of hope and sense in a region dominated by wars and instability tick? "I have been practicing development economics for a long time. So yes, development makes me tick." Are you modest? "Ka seTswana gatwe mmapodi ga a ipone se se mo tlhogong. Literally translated it means nobody is able to see the top of his head. So you are free to make your own judgement but I like to see myself as a simple Motswana in Botswana."

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