Magosi's round hands-on dozen months at DIS
Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Thursday April 18, 2019 13:33
Whilst he has always led from the front, his actions have attracted attention from some quarters that believe that sometimes he oversteps his mandate.
During the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) special congress in Kang held a fortnight ago, Magosi was seen delivering presidential candidate Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi’s withdrawal letter to the party Secretary General, Mpho Balopi. It has also been widely reported that Magosi also tried to mediate between President Mokgweetsi Masisi and Venson-Moitoi as well as former President Ian Khama.
This got observers wondering if it is part of his mandate as the DIS chief to meddle in party politics.
However, a University of Botswana (UB) lecturer of political sciences, Keaoleboga Dipogiso says that whilst it is his priority to provide security to President Mokgweetsi Masisi, his recent actions during the BDP Kang congress were ‘unfortunate’.
Dipogiso said Magosi’s main priority in everything that he does is the national security and protection of the President, as such it was important that the spy chief and other security and intelligence agents were present at the BDP Kang congress.
“But it would be unfortunate if in the process he indulged in politics. It will be outside his mandate if he did that because his mandate at the congress should have been confined to the protection of the President and national security,” he said.
Dipogiso said the spy chief has no business turning BDP messenger, as he does not belong to any party structures.
“There are structures within the party and he doesn’t fall anywhere within those structures. He cannot turn BDP messenger even if he is guarding the President. What is clearly his interest is to detect any threat to national security and deal with it,” he said.
However, he said there is misconception about where his protection of the President should end.
“Everywhere the President is, whether official (or not), DIS, the police and BDF soldiers, have to be around him providing that security. We never know the nature of issues he is handling and the threat they pose. That’s where the paradox is. One expects that he was giving the President security and protection, it will be difficult to differentiate if he was indeed now overstepping his mandate,” he added.
Since he took over, Magosi has been leading from the front and has been present in almost all DIS operations. One would expect him to assign the security detail of the President to his staff; however, he has been the one body-guarding Masisi.
Dipogiso said this could be an issue of who to trust, as there are members of the security organ whose allegiance could be for the old regime.
And by so doing, he wants to be present and ensure that everything is in order.
Moreover, he stated that the mandate of the DIS allows it to investigate anything if they detect any form of compromise to national security and notify relevant authorities with specific functions that also include prosecution if there is compelling evidence.
However, he said the investigations should not be for political gain by whoever, which is something that has been complained about of the organ even during the past administration.