Get rid of Magosi

Mmegi Editor | Friday March 12, 2021 11:53

Botswana has the Director of Intelligence and Security (DIS) who has gone rogue and is only interested in publicity stunts at the expense of his oath of office. There are plenty of clear abuse of office acts by this man but his boss, President Mokgweetsi Masisi does not want to act and call the man to order.

It is common cause that Magosi has scored own goals several times and is a liability to the purse of the Republic, but the First Citizen keeps protecting him. It has been reported before that the President was said to have been livid after it emerged that the case in which suspended senior intelligence agent, Welheminah Maswabi codenamed Butterfly, was charged with amongst others, terrorism financing was based on trumped up charges laced with fabricated evidence.

It is in public knowledge that jurisdictions or countries where Maswabi allegedly stashed away swathes of funds in offshore accounts have denied having such a client.

For instance, Indonesia,  Britain, Scotland the United States and China have denied the existence of such accounts or funds in their banks. But Magosi and his clueless sycophants at the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) are the only people who believe that P100 billion was stolen from the Central Bank despite denials  by Bank of Botswana (BoB).

Magosi, it has emerged in a leaked audio, did not want the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) to interview the BoB governor about the matter.

This is because he knew he was sold a dummy for about P5 million allegedly by some South African con artists. How the whole spy chief got swindled that amount by chancers and ended up buying a desktop created material against some compatriots boggles the mind. It says a lot about the state of intelligence in the country. 

The truth of the matter is that Magosi exists and gains his extraordinary significance solely from the chaos taking place and solely for the chaos. Without creating chaos, Magosi is nothing, but he cannot create chaos forever. 

We are sure even Masisi and senior government officials are tired of his stunts, wanting a return to normal life. But with Magosi normal life will be a  pipe dream for Masisi and for the country. Magosi has become a serious security threat, just for the sake of preserving himself, his personal interest, which is power.

Given the sham that characterises the state of affairs at DIS, Masisi must do the needful and fire his spy chief as a matter of urgency. He cannot afford the good name of this wonderful country to be soiled by a clueless  pretender in matters of security and intelligence.

Today’s thought

“A smart man makes a mistake, learns from it, and never makes that mistake again. But a wise man finds a smart man and learns from him how to avoid the mistake altogether.”

- Roy H. Williams