Government critic to be deported

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A professor who has been a fierce critic of the lack of democracy in Botswana is to be deported. Professor Ken Good lost his appeal against deportation earlier today, and was taken from the court by plain-clothes police.

Professor Good, an Australian who has taught political science at Botswana University for 15 years, criticized the way Presidents in Botswana are appointed by their predecessor rather than directly elected in a paper earlier this year.

Shortly before he was due to present the paper, President Mogae issued a deportation order. Good appealed, but today learnt that he had lost his appeal. The government has labelled the professor ’a threat to national security', but has never justified this statement.

Professor Good has also been a strong critic of the government's policy of forcibly relocating Bushmen from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, a policy he called ’repressive'. In a recent paper he said, ’Removal, relocation, and dispossession have been their [the Bushmen's] repeated experiences…

’The subordination of the San [Bushmen] was carried through by the rising Tswana ruling elite, and the weakness of democracy subsequently… has facilitated its continuance… Botswana's democracy will remain dysfunctional as long as their poverty endures.'


For more information contact Jo Woodman on 020 7687 8732 or email  [email protected]