Butterfly guns for P30m too
Mpho Mokwape | Friday October 2, 2020 17:30
The demand comes after yet another one made by former DIS director general, Isaac Kgosi for the government to pay him the same amount for defamation.
The 47-year-old Maswabi, who is charged with financing terrorism, possession of unexplained property and false declaration of a passport, has issued a statutory notice seeking for the State to act accordingly and issue an apology and retraction to her, and also pay the said amount for defamation.
According to the notice dated September 18, 2020, Maswabi said allegations in the charge sheet and statements contained in the affidavit of Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) lead investigator, Juko Hubona were defamatory as they falsely implicated her in money-laundering and financial terrorism.
Maswabi, through his attorney Uyapo Ndadi, further said the deposed affidavit by Hubona was false and defamatory.
The affidavit contained allegations, amongst others, that she was a co-signatory with other people including, South African Bridgette Motsepe for various bank accounts held in several banks held under entities known as Blue Flies company into which large amounts of money allegedly stolen from Bank of Botswana (BoB) were transferred.
“The allegation in the said charge sheet and Hubona’s affidavit are defamatory of client as they falsely implicate me in theft of large sums of money from Bank of Botswana, money-laundering and terrorism,” reads the notice.
Maswabi said the allegations were not only false, but were deliberately fabricated to make her look like a thief.
The truth, she added, has been there all along, especially that amongst the allegations made against her that she was part of the $48 million transferred to Kgethem account, the Reserve Bank of South Africa wrote a letter denying the transfer and authorisation of such amount.
The allegation was that Maswabi was a co-signatory and the said money was then transferred from BoB into various bank accounts around the world and further alleged that on February 15, 2019 an amount of $48 million of the stolen money was transferred from Makhota Bank in Indonesia into Standard Bank account in South Africa under the names Kgethem (Pty) Ltd.
“It is further alleged that I became the co- signatory to the said account and that later the said amount was cleared or authorised by the Reserve Bank of South Africa on February 21, 2019,” Maswabi said.
The spy also said she was surprised that Hubona made such damning allegations while the BoB also denied such transactions of large amounts of money took place.
Maswabi further said both director generals of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the DCEC had the documents in their possession, but they still proceeded to make damning allegations against her in the Hubona affidavit.
She denied all the allegations made by the State and noted that as consequence of the defamatory allegations, she wanted the director of DPP to withdraw and abandon the charges against her which are pending before a Magistrate’s Court, issue a public apology and retraction and also stop publishing any further defamatory statements.
“Should our client’s demands not be acceded to, we hold instructions to approach the High Court and seek an order. Further, client intends to bring legal action against the DPP for malicious prosecution,” reads the notice.
Meanwhile Maswabi, who still has a pending case for the said charges, has denied being signatory to any of the accounts that was alleged to have been used to transfer money that former president, Ian Khama, former spy chief, Kgosi and South African businesswoman, Motsepe are all alleged to be involved in by the State.
Maswabi, who is also accused of having a sum of U$D390 million in her personal account, and having five different passports, said it was very strange that the State alleged that she had amassed so much wealth when she did not have anything to her name.
The statutory notice by Maswabi was addressed to the Attorney General, Director of DPP, Director of DIS, Commissioner of Police and Director of DCEC.