Botswana presents itself and is routinely seen by outsiders as an African ‘miracle’ of growth, governance, stability and democracy. When apartheid and one-party dictatorships characterised the region and ethnic conflict, military coups and collapse occurred elsewhere, the image claimed some credibility. In a continent full of bad news, success stories shone brighter, and exaggerations readily occurred and acquired permanency. It is true that the country's growth rate was the world's highest over thirty years into the 1990s, and that it has held regular parliamentary elections judged free on polling day since the eve of independence in 1965. But change has now been afoot in southern Africa for over a decade, significantly in Namibia and South Africa, more hesitantly in Zambia and Tanzania. And Botswana's growth and electoral regularity, like Mussolini's trains, are only part of the full story.

Revealingly, Botswana's rulers are never stinting in their claims. The country's growth, stability and democracy and their own leadership, were the best in Africa and even further afield. President Ketumile Masire entered the 1994 general election campaign with a typically triumphalist statement. Every previous election had been won by the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) because of its ‘unity, cohesion … visionary and mature leadership, well-conceived and implementable policies’, born of ‘goal directed and sure-footed leadership’ and ‘unparalleled achievements … of resource and fiscal husbandry’.