From Cabinet to court
Spira Tlhankane | Friday August 21, 2026 11:35
There will be no Cabinet table, ministerial briefings and government convoy carrying Ghanzi legislator Noah Salakae into an official engagement. Instead, Salakae, who this week resigned from his Cabinet post as Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, is expected to walk through the doors of the courthouse.
For a man like Salakae, it will be a remarkable descent from a Cabinet chamber to the accused’s dock. The authority of a ministerial title will now give way to the colder language of the criminal law. For Salakae, like other former ministers before him, the image will be difficult to miss as the media will be waiting for a glimpse of the man whose sudden departure from Cabinet has already triggered intense public interest.
Salakae, once surrounded by officials and protected by the privileges and protocols of high political office, will enter a courtroom where those trappings carry little weight. The magistrate will not be there to hear Cabinet arguments, and the prosecutor will not be asking for political explanations. Salakae will have to answer as an accused person, not as a minister, and that distinction is likely to define the atmosphere of the day.
The process will be legal, but the spectacle will be political because the courtroom will suddenly become the stage upon which two competing versions of events meet. On one side will be the State, armed with the allegations that have brought the former minister before the courts and on the other will be Salakae, who has already begun mounting his own defence in the court of public opinion by telling Parliament that investigators harassed him and alleging that the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) were weaponised against him. Salakae told Parliament that his resignation did not constitute an admission of guilt or liability regarding the allegations currently under investigation.
Salakae's dramatic exit from Cabinet has set the stage for a potentially explosive courtroom battle in which the former Transport and Infrastructure minister will not only have to answer allegations, but could also put the conduct of the investigators who pursued him under scrutiny. But as the former minister prepares for his first court appearance, his own account of the investigation threatens to become a parallel storyline. Salakae has told Parliament that investigators harassed him during their probe. He expressed strong concerns about the manner in which he claims the investigation has been handled, particularly alleged leaks of information to the public.
Salakae indicated that he believes State investigative agencies crossed the line in their pursuit. “When a government body decides to target an individual, the process is swift and isolating,” Salakae said, adding that “evidence matters less than the narrative the state wants to create.” Salakae's transition from cabinet minister to an accused is particularly striking given the relatively short period in which he occupied the powerful portfolio. He was appointed Minister of Transport and Infrastructure by President Duma Boko after the October 2024 General Election.
Now, instead of defending government policies from the Cabinet table, Salakae faces the prospect of defending himself before the courts. The precise details of the allegations against Salakae will be critical to understanding the case, and that makes the charge sheet one of the most important documents in the unfolding saga.The charge sheet will reveal exactly what Salakae is accused of doing, when the alleged conduct occurred, who else may have been involved, if sums of money were involved and whether the allegations concern decisions taken while he was minister.
Until those details are tested in court, Salakae remains entitled to the presumption of innocence. “My sole focus is to fully cooperate with and allow the legal process to run its course,” he told Parliament. Salakae said he had deliberately chosen to step aside to allow the legal and investigative processes to proceed without any perception that his Cabinet position could interfere with the matter.
Now his allegations against the investigators introduce another potentially explosive dimension. Salakae's claim that the DCEC and the Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) were weaponised against him puts the spotlight on the methods used during the investigation. He said he had fully cooperated with the DCEC investigations since September 10, 2025, when his rented residence was raided. “I fully cooperated with the DCEC investigations from the day they raided my rented residence in the city on 10 September 2025,” he said. Salakae alleged that about 15 operatives were involved in the raid, which lasted approximately nine hours and took place in the presence of his wife and four children. “My kids keep on asking me who they were, what they were doing and what they were looking for,” he said.
He further accused the DCEC of disregarding its own rules and protocols, particularly regarding the disclosure of information relating to ongoing investigations. If the former minister maintains that investigators abused their powers, his lawyers could potentially seek to place those allegations before the court or challenge aspects of the investigation. Conversely, allegations of unlawful searches, intimidation, coercion or other abuses of investigative powers are something other high-profile accused persons have raised in the past about the conduct of the State's agencies.
Now critics argue that Salakae's parliamentary allegations deserve to be examined rather than treated merely as political rhetoric. The case also comes against the backdrop of Salakae's time at the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, where he was involved in several politically sensitive and financially significant government programmes.
The case will equally be a test for the DCEC, which has in the past been labelled as toothless. The agency will have to demonstrate through the prosecution that its investigation was based on evidence rather than political considerations. As Salakae leaves the Cabinet for the courtroom, his resignation also leaves the UDC administration with an uncomfortable political problem.
The government came into office promising a different approach to governance and accountability, but a Cabinet minister leaving office amid corruption allegations puts that commitment under an immediate spotlight. For now, the former minister remains presumed innocent, but as he moves from the Cabinet table to the accused's seat, his day in court promises to be one of the more closely watched political-legal moments of the year.