16 Feb 2017

We note that The Telegraph of 8th February 2017 carried a story on page 2 that indicates that His Excellency the President applied for a license to fly civilian aircraft from the Civil Aviation Authority of Botswana (CAAB).
We further note that the same newspaper in its next (15/2/17) edition carried a story about the recent crash of a Botswana Defence Force (BDF) aircraft, indicating that the plane was supposed to fly His Honour the Vice President, furthermore in the body of the text stating that “It is not clear why Khama did not travel with Masisi.”
We therefore take this opportunity to clarify the above two matters.
With respect to the first story it is not true that His Excellency the President applied to CAAB to pilot civilian aircraft.
In this respect it may be noted he trained as a pilot here in Botswana and in Antwerp; Belgium, in 1975, subsequent to which he went to Germany whereupon he was certified by the Federal Aviation Authority(FAA) of the United State of America.  He therefore already holds the said international certification, which qualifies to fly in any country.
His Excellency, thus as is norm in aviation and as per FAA requirements, flies regularly and records flight hours and goes for medical checkups to ensure compliance.
His Excellency is one of the pioneer pilots in this country with a wide range of experience in the aviation industry. He is also one of the few people in the world who qualify to fly both the fixed wing type of aircraft and the rotary aircraft (helicopters).
In relation to the BDF crash and His Honour the Vice President not getting a lift from His Excellency the President’s VIP Flight, we wish to reiterate that basic security protocol dictates that you cannot have your two highest principals in the same aircraft.
We, therefore, wish to highlight that whilst investigative journalism is a noble undertaking and where questionnaires have been provided and answered as stated from primary recipients, the same dispensation of ascertaining facts from ‘alleged highly placed sources’ should equally apply.
Furthermore, regarding the second issue, it is presumed that Senior Reporters and Editors are astute and alive to some of these basic protocol issues, unless they want to cast obscure assertions on relations between the President and Vice President for whatever reasons.
We reiterate that, once again, we find it very unfortunate that this latest innuendo appears to be part of a continuous pattern on the part of the this publication to undermine the good name of His Excellency the President through misinformation and on numerous occasions outright falsehoods. ENDS