Pretoria disputes compensation for Gaborone raid

The government of South Africa disputed compensation claims from the government of Botswana for damages caused by the July 1985 South African Defence Force raid on Gaborone, capital of Botswana. The disagreement came after talks between minister of Foreign Affairs Pik Botha and his Botswana counterpart Gaositwe Chiepe. The government of Botswana demanded that the South Africa government should cover the cost of reconstructing destroyed buildings and pay compensation for the loss of life. According to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now African Union assessment, the damages totalled R25 million. A week earlier, during the conference, " Apartheid and Southern Africa: The West European response", member states of the Southern African Development Co-Ordination Conference (SADCC), claimed that South African apartheid was costing them R25 000 - million and R 3000 million of it was from direct war damages caused by South Africa's raids.