'Where is the P30 million?'
Oarabile Mosikare | Friday March 22, 2019 18:00
The maverick Member of Parliament confirmed on Tuesday morning that he was on the run and in hiding in one of the neighbouring countries.
“I can confirm that I am outside the country for my safety. I am out of the country yes. I don’t know for how long. I have informed the Speaker of the National Assembly. I received information that Roseline [Panzirah-Matshome] and myself’s lives are in danger and we needed to protect ourselves,’ Moyo said. He claimed that a mole in the DIS informed him of the elaborate plan. He did not want to reveal the name of the country mentioned.
Moyo and Panzirah-Matshome are campaigning for the positions of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) secretary general and deputy secretary general respectively.
On Tuesday, Panzirah-Matshome revealed that her Inbusiness magazine office was ransacked and two Mac computers and four laptops were missing. Recently, the troubled Moyo placed his company United Refineries Botswana Holdings (URB), a cooking oil manufacturing plant in the outskirts of Francistown under provisional judicial management. This was after reports that Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) was after his scalp for alleged failure to pay tax. This week Magosi revealed that Moyo has to account for about P30 million that he took from different banks.
“His cooking oil manufacturing project is not working and we want to know where the money is. BURS also got a search warrant against him and want to repossess some of his goods,” Magosi said. The angry Magosi said Moyo should stop misleading the nation that there is a plot to assassinate him when he knows the truth. “If we wanted to arrest him we could have long done that. He is not even picking up our calls. He must come back home. No one is going to stop us from fighting corruption.”
It has been reported that URB was awarded a P29m tender by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and did not pay tax, a move that placed him on a coalition coarse with the BURS. It is also alleged that the company might has misspent about P63m it got from Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA), Botswana Development Corporation (BDC) and First National Bank Botswana (FNBB). In total, it is believed that Moyo owes BURS an excess of P20m through his numeral companies. He said he was not aware that there was BURS search warrant against him to repossess his property.
Commenting about URB woes he said: “I have always known that His Excellency has instructed them to close the company. He knows. But the company is under judicial management. The records are there for them to inspect. There is nothing to hide. Please contact the judicial manager. Anything about URB please talk to him’. He said he has always owed banks and paid. “Is it a crime to owe? My assets are more than what I owe. In business we borrow.” He said on Tuesday he saw missed calls from both Magosi and Vice President Slumber Tsogwane.
Moyo also denied Magosi’s assertion that he is ignoring their calls. “If there is a crime that I have committed let him bring it and I will face it. No one is above the law. He has never called me to answer for anything.”
Just recently, the BDP cautioned 32 members, amongst them councillors and Members of Parliament (MP) associated with former president Ian Khama to appear before a disciplinary committee for litany offences.
This follows a meeting the 32 members, including Moyo and Panzirah-Matshome attended in Serowe last month addressed by Khama and former Minister and presidential aspirant Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi.
The BDP has not yet written to Khama and Venson-Moitoi who was fired from Cabinet by President Mokgweetsi Masisi in December 2018 after she announced her ambition for the presidency. Immediately after the meeting which was well attended in Serowe, which happened to be Khama and Venson-Moitoi’s home village, the party secretary general Mpho Balopi warned the attendees that the gathering was illegal since it was not officially sanctioned and that action will be taken against those who attended.
A leading BDP activist who does not belong to either camp said he does not rule out Moyo’s assertions.
“These chaps are rough. Moyo is the toughest guy I know in politics. He cannot just flee. He has always had tax issues like majority of business people but did not run away. Why can’t they wait for the congress to finish? The timing is not coincidental and this notion of DIS involved in DCEC matters I don’t get it. Why isn’t the DCEC in the lead? I mean even if Magosi saw a file on financial corruption he would be clueless what more of his subordinates?” he said.