I did not assume DCEC duty to target anyone – Katlholo
Mpho Mokwape | Monday November 20, 2023 06:00
The embattled Katlholo says contrary to suggestive allegations, he did not take office at the DCEC to target any particular individual but he was to address the general phenomenon of corruption irrespective of who was involved. Responding to the State for further particulars, Katlholo who was surrounded by controversy leading to his suspension last year June and subsequent dismissal from duty for allegedly daring to investigate the DIS boss, Peter Magosi, he said he did not see any relevance in naming prominent persons that were investigated during his tenure.
“No particular individual was targeted during my tenure.
The mandate was to investigate corruption regardless of the person involved. I do not see the relevance of providing a list of prominent persons investigated during his tenure with criminal proceedings against them,” he said. Katlholo, who is going against Attorney General, DIS director Magosi, DIS spokesperson Edward Robert, DIS lead investigator Jet Mafuta and acting director of DCEC Tshepo Pilane in a civil suit in which he is demanding P2 million for defamation, says defamatory statements were published about him despite him merely doing his job of investigating and preventing corruption.
Prior to the defamatory allegations and the lawsuit, Katlholo said Magosi was aware that he was being investigated together with the Permanent Secretary to the President (PSP) at the time. “Magosi was aware that I was investigating him and the PSP on various allegations of corruption,” he said.
He explained that the allegations of corrupt conduct investigated against Magosi were that among others abuse of office in the relation to China Jiangsu tender cancellation. Background to China Jiangsu is that in 2020, Magosi was accused of interfering in the tender after naming the Chinese-owned Construction Company, China Jiangsu International as a national security threat.
The company that for quite some time was having a messy battle with government over the cancelled tender amidst allegations of security threat was, however, awarded the P1.5 billion tender by the court after rubbishing the DIS warnings and ordered the Ministry of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services and Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board (PPADB) to issue the tender back.
Katlholo said Magosi was also investigated for abuse of office in relation to his interference with the evaluation of the Mankgodi, Gabane, Mogoditshane bypass, abuse of office in relation to procurement of Tautona Lodge, leaving beyond means while the PSP was for corruption in relation to the bribe she received while a committee member of the Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund (BPOPF). He submitted that Magosi as head of the DIS remained accountable and liable for the conduct of his organisation and that there was no one in particular that was targeted.
Further on reasons for closing some files for prominent persons during his tenure, Katlholo who also found former DIS boss Isaac Kgosi’s file on his desk said he was not employed to investigate Kgosi as a person but rather for general investigation and prevention of corruption. “I implemented a strategy code named ‘Prioritise, Focus and Investigate’ overseen by my deputy director General-Operation wherein high profile cases including Seleka Springs and Kgosi’s cases were re-assessed by a team of senior officers of the DCEC,” he said.
Katlholo said Seleka Springs and Kgosi’s cases were not kept in his office and that upon perusal of the file he could not help but came to the same conclusion as his predecessor that there were no prospects of success to establish a case of abuse of office. He said the file was with the head of closure assessment penal and that he categorically stated that neither of the two files referenced were kept in his office at the time that his office was sealed by Mafuta “I would further like to state there was absolutely no reason for him to keep such files in his office under lock and key and that the claim by Mafuta that the files were kept in his office is a figment of his own imagination which cannot be given as a reason for sealing his office,” he said.
Katlholo said the utterances allegedly made by Kgosi to the effect that he would topple government did not constitute an offence under the Corruption and Economic Crime Act and that they were made without his knowledge. Neither were they made at his office therefore he can only regret as citizen that such threats were made. The former director said Mafuta seemed to imply that the decision on his part (Katlholo) on the decision, if at all he was the one who made such decision not to pursue investigation any further than what was already done constituted violation of National Security Laws. He said Mafuta’s statement in suggestion that he let Kgosi go was absurd and that it was made in bad faith as privilege was not absolute. Katlholo said all the statements and words said against him were defamatory in their secondary meaning. As such they portrayed him as possibly having committed acts of national security and therefore in violation of national security laws that is why his office was sealed. Meanwhile, Katlholo in his pending suit is demanding damages from the state for what he alleges as statements made by the defendants that were deliberately malicious and intended to injure his good name and reputation.
He explained that the statements made by Magosi and Robert were defamatory in that they were understood by the general public and DCEC staff or implied to the public that despite being the substantive Director General of the DCEC, a law enforcement agency, he was a "national security threat", a criminal, and lacked the integrity to hold such an office.
“The statements were further understood that my office was a place where the alleged acts of national security threats or as it were such criminal activities were planned or undertaken, hence it was deemed necessary to seal the office as a scene of the crime,” he said.
He pointed out that the statement made by Roberts was not made in good faith and that neither Magosi or the spokesperson made efforts to ascertain the truth of the statements and whether he had reasonable grounds after proper analysis of the facts availed to him to believe it to be true. In conclusion, Katlholo said at the time such statements were made, Magosi and Robert were aware that all that was attributed to him as a "national security threat" had nothing to do with him. And that there were no reasonable grounds to suspect that he was involved in any conspiracy that threatened national security.