DIS demotes pilot for flying Khama

Opelonomi Edwin Matlhagela who has been with the intelligence agency since September 28, 2012 says his services have been reduced to paperwork simply because he took an instruction from Kgosi to fly former president Ian Khama to Mosu.  Matlhagela’s redeployment comes after he took an instruction to fly Khama to Mosu following President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s refusal around April to lend the former president an aircraft and banned him from flying Botswana Defence Force ones.

Khama’s confidante, Kgosi had then lent him the spy agency’s aircraft, the move that infuriated Masisi. Kgosi was subsequently sacked from the public service. Matlhagela, on October 12, 2018 through his attorney Uyapo Ndadi issued a statutory notice of intention to sue the intelligence services for demoting him while he was merely carrying an instruction from his superiors to fly Khama.