Is SA really safe? A shocking critique from Botswana

If, as the saying goes, the truth hurts, then Gauteng MEC for finance and economic development Lebogang Maile must be writhing with the pain inflicted by Botswana President Duma Boko this week when he told investors South Africa was “not safe.”

The aggrieved Maile was a member of a delegation from South Africa at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, where the Botswana leader had the temerity to simply state a fact.

Social media reaction should have had Maile running for cover, because many who commented – and most were South Africans – told the MEC he and his comrades should focus on actually doing something about crime and corruption.

Yet, there were those who agreed with Maile, that it was wrong to break the African code of silence when others do wrong. President Cyril’s Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, said that “if true, it will be unfortunate”.

It may also be, as one political analyst put it to us, that this whole matter is a “storm in a teacup”. It was a mere short remark, after all.

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However, when a president of a country says anything, potential investors listen and those in Davos would probably already have been aware of the fact that Botswana is a markedly safer country in all aspects than South Africa.

Boko’s comments came on the back of other remarks he made about making Botswana becoming more open to foreign investment and assuring investors their money would be safe.

He didn’t have to say so, but foreign investors have often said they are concerned about political instability in South Africa, as well as policy talk about nationalising the Reserve Bank, land expropriation without compensation and schemes like the socialist-sounding National Health Insurance.

Maybe Boko did us a favour by waking us up to the reality of how others – and investors – see us.