The day the DIS raided Mmegi
Ryder Gabathuse | Monday December 25, 2023 13:02
There is no doubt that in a democratic dispensation like ours, security intelligence is a key component in managing internal and external threats to a nation. But, when the work of security intelligence organs becomes intrusive and weaponised, targeting political opponents of the ruling elite, the whole exercise now defeats the very tenets of democracy. This is what to a large extent has raised the value of this story as my best in the year 2023. The media, which the DIS has always identified as a crucial partner, has all of a sudden become an enemy of the nation.
It is apparent international media partners have long issued a warning to the Botswana government about the detrimental impact the DIS could have on the country’s standing on the global press freedom index after past experiences. The actions of the DIS impacted negatively on the media and press freedoms, which are key pointers in a democratic set up.
Almost six months after an encounter with an uncompromising team of intelligence sleuths from the country’s notorious DIS based at the Sebele interrogation centre, the Dikgang Publishing Company (Publishers of both Mmegi and The Monitor) offices raid is still fresh in my mind as if it happened a while ago.
As we put to rest the 50th edition of the year 2023 and our very last this year, the DIS raid story stands out from a wide coverage that I aggressively did for Mmegi newspaper in the past 12 months for many reason. There are many other stories that I still cherish for their impact given the feedback we have about them, but for many reasons, the DIS arrest story on the evening July 20, 2023 still rides the crest.
On a positive note, there was no better time than that evening in July to have an opportunity to get an inside feel of the DIS Sebele facility and why people fear it so much. Through this story, I provide feedback to our intelligence outfit and our readers and no bad blood.
At the outset, I must point out that the DIS incident quickly reminded me of the story of the late intrepid South African investigative journalist Henry Nxumalo of the Drum magazine popularly known as ‘Mr Drum’. In one of his daring investigative pieces, he allowed himself to be arrested by the authorities so that he could report on the poor conditions inside a prison facility in South Africa.
My sixth sense on the evening of the raid started telling me; there was no better opportunity to tell the story of the Sebele facility. Frustrated as I was, I decided to cool my temper and turn my challenges of that evening into a lifetime opportunity that it turned out to be.
The Sebele centre shows signs of ageing as a result of possibly being over-used as a facility by the DIS. Definitely; Sebele has been a very busy place this year given the many prominent arrests of politicians and businessmen and others including their subsequent interrogations.
The colour of the floor tiles is slowly fading out just like the furniture is slowly wearing out. These are signs that many people have been interrogated at Sebele, making the place the most feared facility ever. At that rate, Botswana’s ‘Guantanamo Bay’, as the facility is popularly known, will need thorough refurbishment. A look around the facility’s installations suggested that more replacements would have to be made.
There are many things that happened on the evening of our arrest, which we still have no answers to. First, we still wonder why the DIS team of investigators in their numbers raided the newspaper office just on the verge of our major deadline sending a chill down our spines, fearing that the plan was to simply cripple the production of the newspaper that week.
Secondly, why did the intelligence officers turn themselves into a laughing stock by openly claiming that they did not have to acquire a search warrant, “because we are warrants ourselves?”
It will follow that even the purpose of the raid was not properly explained save to say, “re tla bua ko pele (We will explain at Sebele).” This way of treating people has been overtaken by events and it is completely outdated, as the attitude was that immediately the DIS officers question you, you simply lose your rights. No, that cannot be. They have to respect the law and the rights of the individuals, no matter what.
They wanted to treat us like guilty parties before we could even know what the office was raided for and the cause of arrest. They literally decided not to mention any wrong we had committed on the night until at a later time at Sebele. It was also naïve of them to have thought that under their arrest and pressure at Sebele for that matter, we would easily and loosely inform them who our sources at Botswana Police Service (BPS), Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC), the DIS and others were. We also have a duty to protect our sources that are the very reason why we confidently churn our stories every week. We don’t write our stories to spite anyone but to inform the nation, which also have a right to know what is happening around including on issues happening at the DIS. The DIS is a public institution that has to account to the nation. We know the previous DG of the DIS once claimed that he does not report to anyone, and not even the State President.
In defence of freedom of expression and freedom of the media, the DPC team felt that their colleagues arrested in the line of duty, could not just go without them putting up a spirited fight. I found myself shouting to the team now sternly resisting the officers to whisk me away.
But, it was too late. I finally simply obliged, as I long knew they were coming for us. We had in fact, weeks before, received information that the DIS was coming for us and it was only a matter of time before they actually hit our office.
The DIS drama that day had actually started off with the embarrassment of Mmegi senior reporter Innocent Selatlhwa, who was earlier in the day pounced on by a team of operatives who raided his home in Tlokweng in full view of his neighbours and fiancée (now wife) and took him to the Sebele office where he was interrogated before the team brought him to the DPC office whereupon they pounced on the editor. The DIS divide-and-rule tactic was that they had earlier in the day forced my colleague to implicate me so that they hold me accountable for whatever they were pursuing.
The DIS concern was that we had published an internal document emanating from their office. We had also been publishing internal issues at the DIS, in the public interest. It was so interesting to learn that the purported documented originated from the DIS when in actual fact it did not bear their letterhead, no address and was not even signed. We wondered what right the DIS really had on the document to claim it was theirs. In our view, what we had in our possession originated from the Office of the President, which was at the time preparing to fete international journalists in the State’s battle against publicity that former president Khama was enjoying internationally.
The Sebele interrogation centre is set up in a secluded place in the outskirts of Gaborone for obvious reasons. The only logical reason is for the investigators to do their duties without disturbances from external parties.
Former president Ian Khama’s brothers, Tshekedi Khama (former Cabinet minister and legislator) and his twin brother Anthony and Tshekedi’s wife Thea, never returned to their residences in Gaborone after a brief appearance at Sebele for questioning relating to many issues including their senior brother’s (Ian) alleged ‘weapons of war” he was alleged to be keeping. This is just how Sebele is. Khama’s family members just like him, chose to flee their own country than to make regular appearances at the interrogation centre. Another ruling party former finance minister and Lobatse legislator Dr Thapelo Matsheka is fighting the DIS at a court of law for his arrest and detention, which he contests, were unlawful. Many people find themselves at loggerheads with the intelligence outfit after they were hauled to the Sebele centre. Before he went to South Africa where he is on self-imposed exile, Khama refused to honour an invitation to go to the Sebele facility for questioning.
On the evening I was hauled to Sebele, I found about 10 to 15 men and women waiting for me around the interrogation room. For a moment, they all chose to keep quiet, simply starring at me, may be as a strategy to confuse and intimidate me. No introductions. Nothing.
The situation nearly deflated me but I regained composure and calmness. Reports on the facility played in my head, but fortunately, I refused to yield to my own internal pressure. In summation, the DIS’ strategy to incriminate us only has room for improvement. But, the solidarity we enjoyed from colleagues home, regionally and internationally, also tended to elevate my choice of a story telling the world of the DIS’ appetite to muzzle the media. The reactions were amazing and tended to popularise this story at the time, as almost all the world’s news media outlets circulated it.
In a meeting with Peter Magosi, the DIS Director General and public relations and protocol director, Edward Robert, the notion was to bury the hatchet and restore hope of continued relations between the DIS and the media post the raid and interrogation. The DIS even later apologised publicly at the Public Accounts Committee, a committee that acts as a check on the administration.
At least, they spoke publicly that the gadgets they long confiscated from colleagues would be returned and they did return them. Even in our case, their promises on gadgets were delivered on an agreed condition. It is the solidarity of local, regional and international media that put sufficient pressure on the government to ensure we were also released after about five hours of interrogation.