VZCZCXRO7170
RR RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHOR #0979 3150751
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 100751Z NOV 08
FM AMEMBASSY GABORONE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5368
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RHMFISS/HQ USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0379

UNCLAS GABORONE 000979 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR AF/S 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL ZI BC
SUBJECT: FROM THE MOUTHS OF BABES - BOTSWANA PUBLIC OPINION 
         ON ZIMBABWE 
 
NOT FOR INTERNET POSTING 
 
¶1. (U) United Nations Day was celebrated in Botswana 
on October 24 in Kang, a small, remote way station on 
the Trans-Kalahari Highway in the Central Kalahari 
District.  The Minister of Foreign Affairs and 
International Cooperation, Phandu Skelemani, many 
other GOB officials, and representatives from about 
14 diplomatic missions and the UN agencies attended 
the event.Pol/Econ Officer represented the Embassy. 
 
¶2. (SBU) The UN Day celebration centered on this 
year's theme of Youth Empowerment and featured two 
youth choirs, a traditional dance group and a youth 
drama group from a local intermediate school.  The drama 
group wrote a play for the occasion, in which an 
imaginary "product" had been developed to aid youth 
empowerment.  The play's plot involved the marketing 
of this "product" to Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and Iran's 
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  Throughout the play, the 
promoters of the product were met with lines, 
especially from the child portraying Mugabe, that 
sounded as though they were taken directly from 
speeches - "this is just a Bush plan from the 
West," "we don't need the West's interference," 
and "the West can go to hell if they think we will 
accept their plans for us." 
 
¶3. (SBU) The audience, which included hundreds of 
local school children and adult community members, 
seemed to love this portrayal of Mugabe and laughed 
after each line was delivered.  However, the Zimbabwean 
Ambassador to Botswana, seated in front of Poloff, 
was visibly upset by the play and its portrayal of his 
government.  The Ambassador summoned a UN official to 
his seat and repeatedly protested that the play was 
insulting and had no connection to the theme of UN Day. 
At the end of the play the audience gave it rousing 
applause, while the Ambassador from Zimbabwe made a 
hasty exit from the gathering, skipping the remaining 
UN Day events. 
 
¶4. (SBU) COMMENT: Though the UN Day celebration was a 
light-hearted event, the crowd's reaction to the play 
demonstrates that Robert Mugabe does not enjoy grassroots 
support in Botswana, including in the most far-off corners 
of the country.   The audience in Kang was largely made 
up of rural Batswana from the central and western part of 
the country who are the least impacted by the current 
influx of Zimbabwean refugees, and yet even their reaction 
seems to show that the average citizen agrees with the 
GOB's tough stance against the Mugabe government. 
END COMMENT 
NOLAN