Criminalisation of State institutions: DIS, DCEC and DPP
Correspondent | Friday February 14, 2020 13:45
In the bail application before Justice Michael Mothobi in Welhiminah Mphoeng Maswabi versus the State UCHGB 000411/19, it was alleged that the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) together with the Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) and the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) had deliberately and knowingly falsified and fabricated evidence against Ms Maswabi, These allegations have not been denied either by the DPP,DIS or DCEC. You will also be aware that both the DCEC and DIS made several false claims about P100 billion having been stolen by the former president with the connivance of Bank of Botswana and the DIS. You will be aware that Botswana has never had BWP 100 billion in its foreign reserves.
Equally astonishing has been the claim that Tshekedi Khama’s daughter had been used as a proxy to still over P4 billion from the Government of Botswana. This claim broadcast over the radio and repeated in print media by both the DIS and DCEC was false and deliberately targeted at the Khama family. Prior to that, the State represented by former Minister of Finance was quoted by the Patriot newspaper alleging that the National Petroleum Fund (NPF) accused will provide answers to the missing Bank of Botswana millions.
The pattern of fabrication even extends to the infamous NPF where several people including President Mokgweetsi Masisi were deliberately targeted by the DCEC. Not only has this happened but we have also learnt that the DCEC has deliberately withheld disclosing information showing the government had a lawful contract with Dignia System (PTY) LTD and that the goods and services had been rendered and received in line with the said contract because such disclosure would undermine the current false prosecution of the accused persons.
It is also public knowledge that the current DIS Director General was discharged from the army and that he harbours a personal hatred for the former president and former head of DIS as he blames them for his dismissal from the army. To this end the DIS has been peddling false claims that the two have been involved in money laundering through the assistance of ABSA Bank and others in South Africa. These claims have been proven to be false and the country has as a result suffered immense reputational damage.
It is also common knowledge that the current DCEC Director was brought in at the instance of the DIS Director General to settle old scores and pursue the imagined enemies and principally to protect the current DIS boss from the criminal prosecution which had been imminent prior to the removal of Bruce Paledi.
The very DCEC Director General Joseph Mathambo has had his files at the DCEC mysteriously going missing. I therefore wish to place it on record and state that the current DCEC Director is not fit for office. The DCEC Director General has had a brush with the law having been investigated by the very institution he is now leading. He was accused and it still remains, that him together with his then wife, unduly benefitted materially from a relationship with Huawei which subsequently got government tenders at the Botswana Telecommunications Corporations and the Ministry of Defence, Justice and Security.
Prior to his removal and transfer, the former DCEC boss Paledi together with the current DPP were accused of being Khama’s loyalists and threatened with dismal. All government institutions have now been criminalised at the instance of the DIS and the DCEC. The country has also been divided along tribal and regional lines with those from the north being marginalised. There can be no doubt that the conduct of the DIS has been sanctioned at the very top. We must however be relentless in exacting what is in the common good especially when fundamental rights and liberties hang on the balance. By this letter we demand that a commission of enquiry be set up with immediate effect to investigate the conduct of the DIS, DCEC and DPP and in particular the criminalisation of the state at the instance of these institutions.
*Gao Lemogang
The author is a concerned citizen. The Office of the President received his letter on January 22, 2020