Botswana borders on the north of South Africa and the north-east of Namibia. At the time of the Soweto students' uprising in 1976 and its aftermath when many thousands of young people fled South Africa, independent Botswana was a natural destination and transit for many of its neighbour's refugees.

The African National Congress members who escaped to Botswana found themselves responsible for many of the problems attendant on the influx of people and were given the task of setting up a centre in Gaborone. There is a paucity of information in the records as to how this was done. However, a letter from Barry Gilder to the Chief Representative Welile Nhlapo in April 1991 tells that he was deployed to Botswana from 1984 to 1987 and visited frequently up to 1989 when he was declared a prohibited immigrant. The ANC office had to deal with a welter of problems like housing, split families, orphans and permits. Permissions were required to enter Botswana, to gain residence, to assist students, to travel, to get transit visas etc. Most difficult of all was the problem of those who were "P.I'd" (declared prohibited immigrants).

A letter in May 1988 from a firm of attorneys in Gaborone demands that the occupants of a plot vacate it within a month. This elicited a reply of 5 pages from the South African Youth Revolutionary Council, which exposed a network of "chicanery". A group calling themselves the South African Refugee Project Trust had raised funds and "took over" houses that had been allocated to homeless refugees. Some of the Trust members were the attorneys involved. However there is no indication that the Mission office was dealing with this problem, which extended over a number of years.

'A Special Operations' group existed, as is clear from the correspondence dealing with the care of children whose parent/s had been killed by the South African army in skirmishes and while crossing the border. Welile Nhlapo took over as Chief Representative for '91/'92

In October 1987, the Treasurer-General of the ANC based in Lusaka, Thomas Nkobi wrote to "Comrades Barry (Gilder) and Thenjiwe" (Mtintso) reporting that the tents at the Dukwe settlement (for refugees) were flooded "during torrential rains" as they had been "pitched on bare soil". They were asked to discuss the matter with "cde Oupa to see how funds can be made available". An unsigned report by Administration tells of a 'high rate of crime’, which decreased with the establishment of a committee. Some comrades were sent to prison. All at Dukwe suffered from cold due to lack of clothing and shoes. Transport was a 'main' problem, as was finance. Some of the nine children, aged between 3 months and 15 years, "sleep on the floor without mattresses and there is no money to provide lunch boxes for those at the crèche".

In 1992 a letter from Henry Makgothi in Lusaka reports that 450 members were still living in the Dukwe camp, which was now being funded by the Swedish organisation SIDA. There was a school at Dukwe. A student, Jabu Dladla wrote to the British Council in Gaborone in November 1991, requesting library facilities to study for his A-levels and a number of students were awaiting scholarships to study further.

In 1991 Nhlapo began to assist those South Africans who wished to return home with their repatriation. The overriding problem presented was that the Mission was no longer able to pay a monthly allowance to the exiles. Correspondence reveals that Oupa Mokou was the Deputy Chief Representative then.

The work of the Mission continued. It also dealt with visiting delegations from other African countries. People in education, health (Nkosazana Zuma visited in October 1991), music groups and so on came through the ANC, as did those in transit to countries further north.

In 1992 all Chief Representatives were instructed to install computers and to raise the funds for a computer-modem link to a Compuserve telephone line. This facilitated the work of closing down the Missions in 1994. However, in Botswana it took time to solve the problems of widows, children and other exiles that had no means of dealing with their changed circumstances so the Mission office remained open longer.