Editorial: Masisi’s apology is not enough

Former Botswana president Mokgweetsi Masisi’s apology for the killing of the Nchindo brothers and their cousin along the Chobe River may have been diplomatically phrased, but it rings hollow for many Namibians in the Zambezi Region.

An apology without justice, accountability or a serious re-examination of the border realities that gave rise to such tragedies is not closure. It is choreography.

The Namibian Lives Matter (NLM) movement is correct to describe the apology as inadequate. Four Namibian men were shot dead by the Botswana Defence Force in 2020 on suspicion of poaching. Suspicion is not a conviction. And a river is not a battlefield.

But beyond the tragedy itself lies a deeper and more uncomfortable issue, namely the 2018 Namibia-Botswana border treaty, which many communities in Zambezi believe surrendered land and river access historically used by Namibians.

The Chobe River is not just a line on a colonial map. It is a source of livelihood. Families have fished there for generations. Children have grown up knowing its currents better than any surveyor ever could.

Yet the 2018 treaty, building on earlier demarcations and the International Court of Justice ruling over Kasikili/Sedudu Island, effectively hardened boundaries that were once fluid in daily life. For diplomats and lawyers, clarity is victory. For villagers, rigidity can mean exclusion.

Many in the Zambezi region argue that the agreement formalised a border that disproportionately favours Botswana’s interpretation of the river channel, limiting Namibian communities’ traditional access. When enforcement becomes militarised, as it has on several occasions, the result is not cooperation but confrontation.

If four fishermen can be mistaken for poachers and shot dead in disputed waters, then something is profoundly wrong - not only with enforcement, but with the underlying settlement.