%RWVZDQD mongering campaign was to allege that the private member’s draft, as brought before Parliament by Saleshando, did not have proper provisions guaranteeing privacy. They further alleged that the draft Bill did not make exemptions, as was the case internationally. On behalf of the taskforce, MISABotswana issued several media statements putting the record straight, and, more specifically, trying to draw the public attention to the falsehoods of the agenda as led by Masisi and Dr. Ramsay. In an effort to show flexibility and possibly save the Bill, MISA-Botswana made attempts to engage the minister and his official. Attempts were also made to call the office of president to come up with new suggestions on how best to make the draft acceptable to him. But, it was clear that a decision had been made to kill the Bill. Everything else that passed for negotiations was made in bad faith. The taskforce was of the view that the government position was flawed in many ways as it seemed to suggest that a Data Protection Law could be used to protect state secrets and curb information leaks. Such an application, in fact, 6R7KLVLV'HPRFUDF\" was inconsistent with International practice. Put differently, while the FOIA gives the public the right to see official information held by public authorities, the Data Protection Act allows a member of the public to see the personal information that is held about them by such organisations, and they even effect corrections to their personal data. However, the taskforce at the same noted that the two laws complemented each other. The point of the matter in all these, apparently, turned out to be that Government was wasting time on issues that were not pertinent to the draft, as they wanted it killed since they believed that only they could come up with such a draft FOI bill. Meanwhile, MISA-Botswana continued to mobilise the public and educate them on the importance of FOI Act. Many of the consulted, who ranged from media, members of parliament, local authorities and councillors, chiefs to the public at large, all appreciated the Bill and supported it, seeing that it could also become a tool that they could use as well in their work. Perhaps somewhat inevitably, parliament rejected the draft Bill with a promise that government would bring their version of the Bill in the next par-