By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Photo Credit: Rosetta Msimango.
A warrant of arrest has been issued for former Botswana President Ian Khama. The warrant of arrest has been granted by the regional magistrate at Broadhurst in Botswana.
Khama was initially charged in April this year in absentia along with former state intelligence boss Isaac Kgosi, suspended police commissioner Keabetswe Makgophe and Victor Paledi, a former deputy permanent secretary in the youth, gender, sport and culture ministry.
He is facing 14 charges ranging from unlawful possession of a firearm to receiving stolen property and money laundering. But the warrant is for one charge.
Under Botswana law, the illegal possession of guns could lead to a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
Khama ruled Botswana between 2008 and 2018.
In November 2021 the former president went into a self-imposed exhile in South Africa.
At the time he denied that he was seeking asylum or running away from alleged persecution by his successor Mokgweetsi Masisi.
He said then that Masisi was using state institutions to attack him since their fallout in 2019.
Since then, Khama has been travelling the world from his base in South Africa. In January he was in Zambia to visit the late former Zambian president Rupiah Banda, who was suffering from colon cancer.