'State enemy No.1' Salbany cleared
Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Friday May 24, 2019 14:22
This was four years after the DCEC laid a charge of obstructing the State agents from executing their duties against him. Regarded as once an ‘enemy’ of the State, Salbany was arrested and detained at Mogoditshane Police Station supposedly on a charge of obstructing the officers in their investigations back in 2015.
At the time, he was representing Botswana Gazette newspaper in a case in which the DCEC raided the offices of the publication in an attempt to stop it from publishing some information that involved a subject of an investigatoin by the graft busting agency.
The case sparked international debates with government then accused of silencing the press, especially the private media. The DCEC said Salbany’s docket was forwarded to the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for assessment and advice during the same year following completion of investigations. However, it has since emerged that the DPP had been sitting on the docket for four years without any action as Salbany was only cleared just weeks before he started duty.
The DCEC confirmed that it received the docket on June 18, 2015 but advised DPP about the case on April 17, 2019. “We came to the conclusion that no offence had been committed. Advice to the foregoing effect was given to the DCEC on 17/04/19,” read a response to Mmegi enquiry from the DPP.
Despite being in the country for close to 20 years, Salbany endured a troubled relationship with government under former President Ian Khama’s administration. In 2016, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship rejected his application for renewal of work and residence permits. He was subsequently declared a prohibited immigrant by President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s administration in April 2018, a move that was later reversed and the President apologised for it.