United for the sake of arrested colleagues
Mompati Tlhankane | Monday July 31, 2023 06:00
When there is a mention of the name the Directorate of Intelligence Services (DIS), people tremble and some hide behind their fingers. But not Mmegi staff, they stood their ground like it was their last stand a week ago when the security organ invaded their premises and arrested the editor, Ryder Gabathuse. Perhaps, what gave the staff ammunition is that earlier, one of their colleagues, senior reporter, Innocent Selatlhwa had been arrested.
The Mmegi staff was resolute and although the DIS eventually left the office with the editor, they managed to repel their intimidating theatrics. Perhaps, what makes intelligence agents appear invincible and above the law is the over-fictionalisation of intelligence work. But Mmegi staff knew that this was no movie script. The Mmegi staff never cared to speak in hushed conversations when the agents appeared and arrived swiftly and stealthily at their workplace like a thief in the wee hours of the night.
Following reports that they had detained one of our reporters, Selatlhwa few hours before, the agents finally invaded Mmegi offices last Thursday around 8pm. The plain clothes agents arrived in a police car and one private minibus and parked just outside Mmegi premises and a group of them alighted from the car. The minibus blocked the entrance, at first.
This reporter was arriving from the mall and found the agents talking to the security guard. They stopped yours truly and asked to follow him. It is odd to see people demanding to get into Mmegi offices at that time especially during production day. Men and women, the agents just wanted to storm the Mmegi headquarters building like it was a restaurant.
According to the DIS Act, an officer or support staff shall not enter any premises or place unless they have first stated that they are officers and the purpose for which they seek entry and had produced their identity card to any person requesting its production. Asked who they are and what they were doing at Mmegi, the officers eventually produced their identities and asked to see Gabathuse and further insisted on following me upstairs. I asked what they wanted from our editor and they just said they wanted to speak to him.
I insisted they wait while I call the editor, but they refused and headed upstairs. Furthermore, according to the Act, an officer or support staff may for the purpose of effecting an arrest, enter and search any premises or place if he or she has reason to believe that there is in the premises or place a person who is to be arrested. In compliance with some provisions of the Intelligence and Security Service Act, 2007 I knew the officers may enter the premises by force, if necessary so I was not about to stop them as they followed me to the main reception.
They walked around like they owned the place. I told them that this is a media house and they cannot just start searching premises without a warrant and one of them answered, “I am a warrant myself.”
They basically told me that they are a law unto themselves. Section 16 of the Intelligence and Security Service Act which addresses the conduct of officers and support staff points out that an officer or support staff shall not in the performance of his or her functions or the exercise of his or her powers enter or search any private premises except with a warrant issued by a senior magistrate or a judge of the High Court.
A warrant by definition is a document issued by a legal or government official authorising the police or another body to make an arrest, search premises, or carry out some other action relating to the administration of justice. It was shocking to hear an officer say he was the alternate of a legal document because the Act continues to say that, “Where the Director General (DG) believes, on reasonable grounds, that a warrant under this section is required to enable the Directorate to investigate any threat to national security or to perform any of its functions under this Act, the DG shall apply to a senior magistrate or a judge of the High Court for a warrant in accordance with this section”.
There was no warrant issued by a magistrate produced that night, and the officers were the warrants themselves as they said! The agents were crossing the red line of basic rights by making demands. After the editor showed up, they at first had an argument with him but he boldly told them they couldn’t just demand to confiscate his phone and ask him to go to an undisclosed office.
The act also specifies that an officer or support staff authorised in that behalf by the DG may, without warrant, arrest a person if he or she reasonably suspects that ,that person has committed or is about to commit an offence. The officers didn’t say whether Gabathuse was under arrest or had committed nor about to commit an offense. Other Mmegi staff arrived at the scene and wanted to know why he was being arrested in the middle of a newspaper production deadline. Why they didn’t choose any other day is shocking considering that Gabathuse is always around. The way they handled themselves one couldn’t believe that these are people with extraordinary responsibilities and are supposed to protect national security interests. One observation about the conduct of the agents is like they relish being demonised. With their recent series of arrests painted in shades of gray and mostly as nefarious, the DIS officers wanted to appear as irresistible and expected Mmegi staff to bend and hide in the shadows.
They thought the staff feared being grabbed and bundled into a minibus outside. They basically granted themselves the powers they are not entitled to in terms of the Act. Mmegi is a media house so most of the staff is informed about such situations. But they also know their rights and could not have them trampled on them in the name of national security. It is like the staff which consisted of journalists, graphic designers and proof readers knew about some of the clauses in the Act about resisting or obstructing officers and support staff. The Act clearly indicates that any person, who assaults, resists or obstructs any officer of the Directorate or any person acting under the direction of such officer in the due execution of his or her duties shall be guilty of an offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years.
Mmegi staff did not obstruct the officers but they had questions which needed answers. Even some of our not so vocal staff raised their voices because they were not loud enough for the officers it seemed. Agents wanted to chase the staff away but the latter refused because everything was happening in the place where they work and they had all the right to observe the events as they unfolded. The agents gave vague answers and accused some of the staff members of ‘directly translating’ their responses.
The agents finally took the editor for some few minutes outside and he returned shortly where he was allowed to lock up his office and take some of his belongings. Mmegi was in the middle of production, a process that an editor has to see through to the end but the agents did not care, they wanted Gabathuse right away. The DIS Act also states that, “An officer or support staff shall, as soon as is reasonably practicable, take a person arrested under this section to a police station to be dealt with in accordance with the provisions of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act”. The DIS did not tell Gabathuse where they are taking him and why they were taking him.
Whether our colleagues had been detained over any coverage the DIS did not care to disclose. The agents made it seem like the very profession of journalism is criminalised with the way they went about the arrest of our colleagues. Before Gabathuse was taken away, the staff demanded to have a moment with their boss and the agents had to submit.
After the editor left, the mood in the production house was sombre and some wondered if he would come back or whether the agents would come for other colleagues. But business had to go on and with the printers waiting in Tlokweng, the production team had to work even more unified for the sake of their colleagues. Looking at the way Mmegi staff stood up for their own, we doubt that the DIS will criminalise journalism and target independent journalists again. But let us not open more closed chapters, at least the DIS has now admitted to its wrong doing and rectified the error.