DCEC raids newspaper offices
Sharon Mathala | Thursday May 7, 2015 13:00
The letter dated May 6 2015 reads; “Information having this day being laid before me on oath under section 13/1 of the corruption and economic crime act 1994. “And whereas I am satisfied that they are reasonable grounds for suspecting that evidence of the commission of any of the offences referred to in the Part V of the Corruption and Economic Crime Act- 1994 maybe contained at plot 125/ Sedimosa House- Millennium Park, and any material that would be relevant for purpose of our enquiries being the computer and documents used in publishing the article in question.
“I hereby direct officers of the DCEC, to enter and search such premises or place and seize and detain anything which the authorised officers have reason to believe to be or to contain evidence of any of the offences referred to in Part IV of the corruption and Economic Crime Act, 1994.”
The officers raided the newspaper offices around 2pm before the newspaper, through its lawyers, Carlos Joao Salbany and Kabo Motswagole interrupted the search.
The newspaper’s acting editor, Lawrence Seretse said that four officers including one Kholiswa Bulawa came into their offices with the warrant to search.
He explained that when perusing through the document they noticed that the warrant was not specific to which story the officers were referring to – Sports, Business, Entertainment, or News.
Seretse further added: “This is violation to our freedom of expression as a media house. If need be, we will go to court over this”.
Mmegi has been informed that the article in question is titled “DCEC foils Chitube, Reatile and Moumakwa’s alleged P150 million oil deals”. Whilst the officers raided the newspaper premises, the official government Facebook page posted a rebuttal to the Gazette story in question and another one in the Sunday issue of the Sunday Standard.
The Facebook post said, “The Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services (DISS) feel duty bound to respond to false media reports in the Sunday Standard of April 26, 2015 linking DISS and its Director General to certain operations of Noroc Technologies and another story in the Gazette of April 29, linking the Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services to illegal activities of a certain Jerry Chitube.
“Furthermore the story in The Botswana Gazette is also false and baseless. (Mr) Jerry Chitube has never been engaged or worked for the Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services in any capacity. “We view the two articles as yet another desperate attempt to tarnish the name of DISS and its leadership.“We would also like to state that the two media houses did not at any point, when they were reporting on these allegations or after their publication, approach the DISS to give its side of the story.
At 1800hrs last night, DCEC officers pronouced they had a second search warrant, then a surprise warrant against the Gazette reporter Innocent Selatlhwapaper’s. The newspaper lawyers did not barge and the reporter was allowed to go home and will report at DCEC offices this morning.