State throws Masisi under the bus
Oarabile Mosikare | Friday May 24, 2019 14:40
The donation was in the sum of over P2 million. The prosecution authority also confirmed in the new 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 one of the 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 Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) for construction of fuel storage tanks, before being diverted for the purchase of military hardware from Israel.
The accused are reportedly facing 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, 300, 010.
In a hand delivered letter on the following day to attorney Daphne Briscoe, Seretse said; “I refer to my deposit of P300, 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 credited by Masisi was P2 million also from Bakang Seretse after the Tonota Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) elective congress. The money was paid directly as a gift to his file at Briscoe Attorneys, although he did not receive it. Notwithstanding this admission, the DPP has not charged Masisi for money laundering for the amount donated. But they have charged Sadique Kebonang with the donation given to Masisi. It has emerged that Kebonang was in the campaign team for Masisi and had been tasked with soliciting funding for the BDP chairmanship.
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.
In new developments by the DPP, they have since amended the charge sheet, the fifth time and added more people to the charge and introduced more charges.
Those added include 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 Bakang 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 Tshepo Bojelo on September 1, 2015 to August 11, 2017, employed as a chief administration officer in the Department of Energy, did knowingly failed to disclose a personal interest in the decision the Department of Energy had to make, to wit, his longstanding and close rapport with Bakang 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.
One of the charges facing 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.
Legal pundits say it remains to be seen whether the court will today entertain the new charges the DPP has sought to bring in this never ending saga which “appears more politically driven than anything else”. “These are nonsensical charges. For every payment Seretse made, they charged those that received payment as if people stole money,” one of the attorneys said.
The DPP has lined up 179 prosecutions witnesses in the169 counts.
This case involved P250 million, which the then Director General of the DIS Isaac Kgosi requested from the NPF to build fuel storage facilities. The DIS, however, changed the intended purpose of the money and then diverted the use of the funds for anti-poaching equipment. Contrary to the media reports, that Kgosi will be added to the accused persons, he is one of the prominent prosecution witnesses in the case. Some prominent personalities who are witnesses are the Director General of the DIS, Peter Magosi, BERA executive director Rose Seretse and Minister of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism Kitso Mokaila.
The disgraced former National Director of Public Prosecutions in South Africa, Advocate Shawn Abrahams, represents the DPP. Attorneys Unoda Mack and Kgosietsile Ngakaagae who have been defence lawyers would be joined by another renowned criminal attorney Busang Manewe.