Magosi faces fresh contempt charges
Mpho Mokwape | Monday September 1, 2025 06:00
The officers, Pulane Kgoadi, Kuda Malikongwa, Paul Setlhabi, Sebuweng Mukani, and Mpho Molokwane, have approached the High Court on a certificate of urgency, seeking to have Magosi cited for contempt of Justice Boipuso Makhwe’s December 2024 judgment.
In that ruling, Justice Makhwe found that Permanent Secretary to the President (PSP), Emma Peloetletse, had acted unlawfully by ordering investigations into DIS employees. The court held that under the Intelligence and Security Service Act (ISSA), only the DIS Director General or the President, in cases of conflict, has the authority to institute such probes.
“The ISSA does not include the Permanent Secretary as a person having authority over DIS staff. The authority is solely for the Director General, who reports to the President,” Justice Makhwe said in her judgment.
Despite the ruling, the five officers who were suspended in March 2024 amid investigations linked to alleged corruption at Air Botswana have now been summoned to appear before a disciplinary board on September 3, 2025.
In a letter seen by this publication, the DIS warned the officers that failure to attend the hearing could result in proceedings continuing in their absence.
The disciplinary charges stem from a June 2024 decision by a certain Tebogo Bagopi, who was appointed by Peloetletse to investigate the officers. The High Court has already declared that process unlawful, finding Peloetletse acted ultra vires the ISSA.
Justice Makhwe noted the suspensions followed a series of events in which the officers, once part of the Air Botswana investigative team, were removed from the probe, detained by DIS operatives with police assistance, and later suspended.
The Judge ruled that the officers “have a clear right to be subjected to a lawful process and reject an unlawful one,” granting them an interim interdict with costs.
Now the officers argue that Magosi’s insistence on proceeding with disciplinary hearings amounts to defiance of the court order, hence their latest move to have him cited for contempt