Morupisi case: Molefe's entanglement with Marsland wife exposed
Mpho Mokwape | Friday July 17, 2020 11:55
Boitumelo Molefe, who is the former chief executive officer/principal officer for Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund (BPOPF) said she never had the desire to see Morupisi rot in jail.
She denied ever being in cahoots with anyone to make sure that Morupisi goes down for his alleged crimes as she maintained that it was factual that Morupisi was wrong to have signed a contract between BPOPF and Capital Management Botswana (CMB) transaction in which due diligence was not followed.
During cross-examination, defence attorney Busang Manewe had asked Molefe what she had against Morupisi, as she was hell-bent on lying about and against him.
“What do you have against my client or Tim Marsland? Do you have desire to see them burn in hell?” he asked her.
Manewe went on to paint the witness as a liar as he told her that he knew that she was in communication with Marsland’s former wife and that they had a joint desire to see the two in jail as evidenced by their private WhatsApp conversation.
He told Molefe that the case against Morupisi was constructed on WhatsApp because even at a time when Morupisi was said to have attended a Board meeting that was not true, as he had attended a kgotla meeting in Goodhope with the former president.
Further on cross examination, Manewe told Molefe that he was shocked at how authoritative she was about events that happened while she was not yet an employee of BPOPF.
“You talk of events that happened while you were not part of BPOPF and you are so confident about the information you source from the minutes as long as they implicate Morupisi, but when they exonerate him you run away from them,” he told her.
Manewe said all Molefe said was baseless and did not make any sense, especially that she went to court to behave like she was the best thing that ever happened to BPOPF while she rubbished others.
He asked her why she was rubbishing everyone including the legal advisor who had indicated that due diligence was followed during the contract signing.
Meanwhile, in all this, Molefe maintained that she had nothing against Morupisi or company, but was merely stating facts as they transpired during her tenure in the BPOPF, especially that a contract between BPOPF and CMB was signed without due diligence and that Morupisi was wrong to have signed the contract without the resolution of the Board.
She denied knowing Marsland’s former wife at a personal level, or having a personal conversation with her as she (Molefe) only got to know the ex-wife during CMB’s liquidation as she was regarded as one of the people that had information about the matter.
“I do not know her at a personal level and the conversations we have had were professional. I never connived with her during our conversation, though I do admit that we did talk about the Land Cruiser in question but I did not start that conversation nor called her to talk about it,” she said.
Molefe also denied knowing former Kgori Capital, Bakang Seretse at a personal but knew him through work.
She told the court that she did not have a hand in Seretse’s letter that he had written to the BPOPF Board complaining that Morupisi being Board chairperson, may have beneficial interest in CMB.
In her statement, she had explained that following Morupisi’s appointment as Board chairperson, allegations of conflict of interest surfaced when CMB was appointed as equity manager for BPOPF.
According to her record of events, she said that on December 11, 2017, Seretse had written to BPOPF CEO alleging that he had received information from a certain man informing him that the chairperson of BPOPF, being Morupisi, may have beneficial interest in CMB.
“I was never the one that had a hand in that letter. That is why a resolution was taken by the Board to refer the matter to Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) for investigation,” she said.
On being adamant about due diligence not being followed despite the legal advisor having said otherwise, she maintained that the legal advisor was wrong because he cannot participate in adjudication of the tender.
The case continues before Justice Christopher Gabanagae’s court and more witnesses are expected to take the stand.
The prosecution is a quartet led by Priscilla Israel while Manewe leads the defence.