Botswana President, Ian Khama, who recently stirred the hornet’s nest when he called on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to step down immediately to allow the country to progress, was recently given the “Racist of the Year” award for 2016 by Survival International for his prejudice against the San people in his country.
Khama told international news agency Reuters that Mugabe had outlived his usefulness so he should step down because there were too many people with good leadership skills in Zimbabwe who could take over.
“It is obvious that at his age and the state Zimbabwe is in, he is not really able to provide the leadership that could get it out of its predicament,” he said, adding that in his opinion 10 years leading any organisation, even a country, was pretty much the maximum.
Mugabe has been in power since 1980, first as Prime Minister and then as President.
Khama says the San, also known as Bushmen or Basarwa, are living a backward and primitive life of deprivation and has denied them access to their ancestral land where they were forcibly evicted in 1997, 2002 and 2005.
Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said: “General Khama’s track record on abusing the Bushmen is unrivalled. Deep-seated racism is evidently driving his persecution of the tribes. Khama openly voices opinions that belong back in the colonial era, echoing the sort of prejudiced comments that were made by British imperialists. By giving him this award, we hope to bring anti-tribal racism to wider attention and pressure his government to start treating the Bushmen better.”
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