World’s best president story a hoax, says Botswana

Botswana has dismissed widely circulated online reports suggesting that President Seretse Khama Ian Khama has been named the ‘World’s Best President’ as a hoax story.

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Gaborone – The Botswana Office of the President has on Tuesday, dismissed widely circulated online reports suggesting that President Seretse Khama Ian Khama has been named the ‘World’s Best President’ as a hoax story.

The report, which has been circulating online since last week, was published by ‘Smith Rise’, a self-proclaimed satirical blog widely believed to be Malawian due to the nature of its content.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the Office of the President said suggestions that Khama was tipped to become the next Secretary-General of the United Nations were equally malicious and unfounded.

“The Office of the President has become aware and wishes to dissociate itself from a hoax news report being widely circulated online with the headlines – ‘President Silese Khama Ian Khama Named The World’s Best President (the Malawi Punch, August 7)’ and ‘Botswana’s Ian Khama announced as World’s best president, tipped as the next UN Secretary General’ (Smith Rise, August 6).

“To the best of our knowledge, the source of the said reports is ‘Smith Rise’, a self-proclaimed ‘online satirical blog’ alongside the apparently associated ‘Malawi Punch’ websites and other social media,” his office said.

Further, the office said its argument that the story is a hoax was supported by disclaimers published in the ‘Smith Rise’ blog home page which said its stories were ‘fictional and fake’, and any resemblance to the truth would be purely coincidental.

According to the article published on Smith Rise, which had scored 23 900 shares by mid-morning on Tuesday, Khama was named in the ‘United Nations Economic and Social Council’ review of 2016.

Without giving evidence, ‘Smith Rise’ said Khama’s nomination was ‘criticised’ by ‘many’ because ‘Botswana had been drawn into many controversies’ since he took office.

African News Agency (ANA)