Botswana to give Tsvangirai a diplomatic passport
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The Zimbabwean government ‘s continued refusal to give Morgan Tsvangirai a passport has forced the Botswana government to mull plans to give the MDC leader a diplomatic passport,Metro can reveal.
An official in the department of Immigration and Citizenship revealed that they have received instructions to look into the issue of how they can give Mr.Tsvangirai a diplomatic passport.
‘We were instructed to see how we can help ease Mr.Tsvangirai’s travel as a civic leader in his country after obvious travel restrictions from the government of Zimbabwe,the legal and other aspects of it’, the official said without elaborating further.
Another senior official in the Ministry of foreign affairs professed ignorance on the matter but was quick to add; ‘The right to travel is a basic human right and personally I don’t know of any crime Tsvangirai has done to be denied that right, he said.
‘If anything some people who have committed worse crimes in Zimbabwe are free to gallivant all over the world to the extent of taking up prestigious jobs in other countries.’, the official added- an obvious reference to deported Mugabe’s scribe Caesar Zvayi.
The Botswana government has since responded to Zimbabwe state media’s claims that Zvayi’s deportation was a publicity stunt.
“Caesar Zvayi, a Zimbabwean national, was declared Prohibited Immigrant in terms of Section 7 (f) of the Immigration Act.
‘We trust that the information provided will alleviate possible public misunderstanding about the matter.
This is to further deny the insinuation made in this morning’s Harare Herald newspaper ‘that the Botswana government contrived the whole affair as a publicity stunt’ by inviting state and/or foreign media to witness Mr. Zvayi’s deportation,the government did not invite any such media coverage.”, the government said in a statement.
Efforts to get a comment from the director of information in Ministry of Foreign Affairs Chris Maribe, were unsuccessful last night.
The development comes as Tsvangirai ‘s emergency travel document was seized as he was about to leave Harare International Airport on his way to a SADC summit.
However George Charamba, Mugabe’s spokesman denied that Tsvangirai ‘s passport was seized,he said instead he was not allowed to leave the country because his travel documents were invalid. He said his passport had expired, and had not yet been replaced.
“We are not going to waive the rules for a politician who is merely forgetful,” he said before the travel documents were returned.
He accused Mr. Tsvangirai of knowingly going to the airport with invalid travel documents to provoke authorities “to secure one or two sound bites” and gain political mileage.
Posted by Mellisa Dube-Koketso
on August 15, 2008. Filed under Local News.
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