DIS should concentrate on its mandate

Mmegi Editor | Monday March 13, 2023 06:00

Former DCEC Senior Assistant Director (legal services) Andria German, who is on transfer at the Attorney General’s Chambers, made startling revelations of how files (of cases in his custody) in which he was investigating top civil servants facing allegations of corruption were taken away in his absence. His office was forced open and the files taken away without being consulted.

German revealed in his case that he was investigating the Permanent Secretary to the President (PSP) Emma Peloetletse, the Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) Director General, Peter Magosi and the DCEC acting Director General, Tshepo Pilane. At the same time, the office of the suspended substantive DCEC Director General, Tymon Katlholo was raided and files of cases under investigation allegedly taken.

German is also suing Magosi, Pilane, Peloetletse, the Attorney General and some four DIS sleuths for unlawful arrest, detention and infringement of his right to privacy, dignity and reputation. He is demanding about P658,699 in the process.

It’s worrying that senior government officials alleged to have committed serious offences simply chose to take the law into their own hands and allegedly break into a powerful office like the DCEC and take from therein dockets of cases that allegedly implicated them. They allegedly even went to the extent of transferring the investigator to another government department and by so doing paralysed investigations against them.

As they allegedly had knowledge that they were suspects in corruption allegations, the top civil servants reportedly turned the tables by effecting the arrest, detention and ultimately transferred the investigator out of the DCEC isolating him from the files he was investigating.

German’s arrest, detention and transfer, coincided with the shocking and unexplained suspension of the substantive DCEC DG, Katholo who is still on suspension.

In all this, what really gives the DIS the mandate to meddle in other institutions’ mandates? We all know that the DCEC is an independent entity with its own mandate of combatting corruption and economic crime and they can only perform their mandate well if they are given the space to deliver effectively.

It’s also worrying that the National Assembly, the civil society, opposition parties and others are simply bystanders whilst the DIS has seemingly taken over the country and it does not show respect to other institutions like the DCEC. Who has said the DIS is above the law?

Today's thought

“The world is in need of the unique purpose you were created for”

– Sunday Adelaja