State 'charges' Kgosi for NPF
Mpho Mokwape | Friday February 7, 2020 16:14
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Stephen Tiroyakgosi declined to confirm whether or not they had intended to serve Kgosi with summons when approached.
Apparently, the State wanted to charge Kgosi with lack of authority to transact on behalf of Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS). If the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) goes ahead with the intention to add Kgosi to the charge sheet, he will join several other accused persons who were charged in May 2019 for the NPF’s P250 million that was transferred to the DIS for construction of fuel storage tanks.
This case involved P250 million, which the then director general of the DIS, Kgosi requested from the NPF to build fuel storage facilities. The DIS, however, later changed the intended purpose of the money and then used the funds to purchase anti-poaching equipment.
It will be more than six times the DPP has amended the charge sheet and added more people to it and introduced more charges. Those added include asset manager, Bakang Seretse’s former business partners at Kgori Capital, Alfonse Ndzinge and Sharifa Noor, suspended Botswana Energy Regulatory Authority director, Kenneth Kerekang’s wife Mpho Kerekang, civil servant, Tshepo Bojelo and Kgori Capital.
Other accused persons are Mogomotsi Seretse, Raging Bull, M & B Proprietary Limited, STM Holdings, Kago Stimela and Leomog Proprietary Limited. In one of the counts, it is alleged that Seretse, Basis Points, Kgori Capital, Noor and Ndzinge on December 24, 2015 acting together with a common purpose, corrupted the first accused person Kenneth Kerekang, a public servant and Mpho Kerekang to enter into an unauthorised contract with the 13th accused person, Kgori Capital in terms of which Kgori was to earn 0.80% of the total value of NPF assets managed by Kgori.
It is alleged that Bojelo on September 1, 2015 to August 11, 2017 employed as a chief administration officer in the Department of Energy did knowingly fail to disclose a personal interest in the decision of the Department of Energy had to make, with his longstanding and close rapport with Seretse, a director in Basis Points Capital, which was awarded a tender with the Department of Energy in December 2015 and a director in Kgori Capital, which was subcontracted by Basis Points to conduct the financial and investment management of the NPF and to establish a NPF Management Unit, and notwithstanding this non-disclosure, he participated in the proceedings of the Department of Energy in relation to its dealings and decisions relating to Basis Points and Kgori Capital.
In May last year, the DPP through its answer for further particulars requested by the defence in the NPF saga, confirmed that, Seretse through Briscoe Attorneys donated some money to the then Vice President Mokgweetsi Masisi. The donation was in the sum of P2 million. The prosecution authority also confirmed in the charge sheet that Seretse made yet another P300, 010 donation to Masisi through the same law firm.
Seretse made the donations through his company Basis Points Capital. The company is fourth accused in a high profile criminal money laundering case involving the NPF. The NPF’s P250 million money-laundering case will be mentioned today at the Broadhurst Magistrate’s Court with new faces in the dock.
The case involves the NPF’s P250 million that was transferred to the DIS for construction of fuel storage tanks, before being diverted for the purchase of military hardware from Israel.
Seretse and others are reportedly facing more than 169 charges ranging from money laundering, theft, abuse of office, giving false information to person employed in the public service and uttering a false document.
Masisi’s first payment was on April 6, 2017 when a sum of P310, 000 was credited to Briscoe Attorneys. The amount was included in the purchase price paid to Lobatse legislator and former minister Sadique Kebonang for the sale of his property in Phakalane. In his letter to Briscoe attorneys, Seretse gave instructions as to how the attorneys must disburse the amounts relating to the P3, 310, 000.
In a hand delivered letter the following day to attorney Daphne Briscoe, Seretse said; “I refer to my deposit of P3, 300, 010 into your trust account. I authorise you to immediately pay the sum of P3, 000, 000, (Three Million Pula) to Mr Sadique Kebonang (or his nominee) for the sale of shares in Bee a Bee (Pty) Ltd.
“The balance of P300, 010 (Three Hundred Thousand and Ten Pula) must be paid to His Honour The Vice President, Mr. Mokgweetsi Masisi towards his election campaign as a donation from myself. The instruction as to how the money should be distributed shall come from Mr Masisi himself”.
The next payment received by Masisi was P2 million also from Seretse after the Tonota Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) elective congress. The money was also paid directly as a gift to his file at Briscoe Attorneys.
Notwithstanding this admission, the DPP has not charged Masisi for money laundering for the donated amount. But it has charged Sadique Kebonang with the donation given to Masisi. It has emerged that Sadique Kebonang was in the campaign team for Masisi and had been tasked with soliciting funding for the BDP chairmanship.
Sadique Kebonang was also involved in 2014 part of the BDP fund-raising campaign and managed some donations on behalf of the party. It has also emerged that Seretse was not the only one who donated to Masisi for what is now known as Camp Dubai.
One of the charges against Sadique Kebonang is that he did not disclose his interest in Basis Point when it was awarded the tender. Information seen by this paper shows that Kebonang was not a minister at the time of the award of the contract to Basis Point nor ever a shareholder or had any of his family members as shareholders in Basis Point or Kgori Capital. In relation to the legislator’s twin brother Justice Zein Kebonang, the DPP has conceded that he was never a shareholder or director of M & B Properties.
The company had paid him for consultancy work for Ministry of Education project on October 27, 2017, which he had been engaged during his time as Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority (BOCRA) employee.
BOCRA had given him written permission to do the consultancy work. Ironically, Kgosi is a State witness in a case at the High Court in which the Kebonang brothers want charges against them dropped.