Former President of Botswana, Ian Khama (2008-2018), and his chosen successor, Mokgweetsi Masisi (2018-2024), are said to be poor in the Setswana language and culture, owing to their perceived “deculturalisation”. To analyse these assumptions, the article employs Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as its contextual framework. CDA uses a three-dimensional approach to discourse: as text, discursive practice, and social practice. These are influenced by factors such as sociocultural, power relations, struggle for power, ideology, hegemony, domination, and manipulation. The article draws from historical insights and analyses Khama and Masisi’s selected political utterances. In its analysis, it maintains that a case for “deculturalisation” can be made for the biracial and English-speaking Khama. Even if so, it posits that at the end of his presidency in April 2018, Khama’s spoken Setswana was reasonably good. Yet, it notes that during his political feud with Masisi (2018-2024), he knowingly used some discourteous words and phrases contravening the Setswana ethos of botho (civility). For Masisi, some claim that being a product of Botswana’s elite private English-medium schools, where Setswana language and culture are allegedly shunned and discouraged, has deleteriously affected his Setswana. In rejecting this view, the article contends that Masisi grew up, worked, and was immersed in a milieu of Setswana language and culture. Thus, he is extremely versed in nuanced Setswana. Despite this, some of his public utterances in Setswana are dysphemistic and against botho. Masisi has the propensity for overreaction and lacks public diplomacy and intuitive wisdom. Some suggest that these traits contributed to the Botswana Democratic Party’s loss in the 2024 general elections, after 58 years in power.

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