DPP dismisses Saleshando
Innocent Selatlhwa | Friday July 20, 2018 18:00
Botswana Congress Party (BCP) had formally launched a complaint with the Commissioner of the Police, Keabetswe Makgophe over the alleged report last year.
Some sections of the private media had, last year, been awash with false and alarmist reports that the Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) had prepared a confidential report titled Tholwana Borethe.
In their letter to Makgophe, BCP president Dumelang Saleshando noted that, “the alleged intelligence report details how the DIS meddles in politics by illegally and wrongfully spying on opposition political parties in Botswana with a view to destabilising them to the advantage of the ruling party”.
“The contents of the alleged report clearly caused alarm and deep-seated fear to the public in general and to opposition parties and their leaders in particular. We note that the DIS has issued a press release distancing itself from the said intelligence report. Significantly, the DIS claims that it has carried out an investigation and they know the originator of the alleged intelligence report.
They have also declared that the said report was bogus. Mmegi newspaper has as of last Friday also indicated that its investigations have led to a finding that the said intelligence report is fake,” wrote the BCP leader. With the letter, Saleshando made a formal report that the architects of the said fake intelligence report be hunted down and charged together with whoever may have published the fake report without just cause.
“It is imperative that this fashionable and emerging trend of manufacturing fake intelligence reports, rumour and false statements, and causing them to be published in the newspapers should be nipped in the bud. Such bogus publications cause unnecessary fear and alarm.”
The police investigations into the matter included questioning of editors from various media houses who had published stories from the report.
“It is true that we have received communication from the DPP that there would be no prosecution over the matter. They did not provide their reasons as provided for in the law governing them,” Mphathi said.
Saleshando said they had not been informed about the decision.
“We are not aware of the development. We wrote the Commissioner of Police this week seeking to find out how the case has since progressed. We don’t have a problem with it not being prosecuted. We just wanted to find out the latest and get closure,” he said.
Efforts to reach the director of Public Prosecutions, Stephen Tiroyakgosi were unsuccessful.