Academic successfully challenges expulsion order

The Botswana High Court ruled on Monday that Australian-born academic Kenneth Good may stay in the country while his lawyers challenge the constitutionality of a deportation order.

President Festus Mogae gave Professor Good, a political analyst at the University of Botswana, 48 hours to leave Botswana two weeks ago for lambasting Mogae's decision to handpick Vice-President Lieutenant-General Ian Khama as his successor.

Good co-authored a report titled, 'Presidential Succession in Botswana: No Model for Africa', which allegedly angered those close to both Mogae and Khama.

But the court ruled that Mogae was not allowed to take any further steps to remove Good from Botswana until the constitutional challenge had run its full course.

"The applicant shall continue to remain in Botswana and enjoy all the benefits he has been enjoying before [he was] declared a prohibited immigrant," said acting High Court Judge Justice Stanley Sapire in Lobatse, 68km from the capital, Gaborone.

After the hearing Good reportedly told Associated Press, "I have repeatedly said democracy in Botswana is restricted to five minutes every five years at election time. These elections are ... not really fair because the governing party has access to resources like funds and state media."

State lawyers had told a packed session of the Lobatse High Court last week on Thursday that the presidential deportation order was not subject to judicial review, as immunity from expulsion in Botswana did not extend to foreigners.

But Good's lawyers insisted they were fully entitled to question the constitutionality of the decree, alleging that Mogae had ulterior motives.

No date was set for the next hearing in the case.