Mosugate scandal refuses to go away
Correspondent | Friday June 29, 2018 15:06
What is even more disturbing is the suggestion that Carter Morupisi will lead the investigations personally. Allegations of corruption at Mosu are huge.
Morupisi cannot be a credible investigator in a controversial case in which an airstrip was constructed by the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) on a land belonging to former president, Ian Khama. Such an act will be tantamount to the Office of the President (OP) investigating itself.
In the past, the OP has demonstrated complicity in a systematic strategy of misleading Parliament and by extension the people of Botswana in respect of Mosu.
Contradictory statements are well documented. Before he assumed the highest office in the land, the current Head of State Mokgweetsi Masisi once stated that the airstrip at Mosu was constructed by BDF on a piece of land that was privately-owned by Khama, the former president.
Later, the OP through Jeff Ramsay issued a contradictory statement to the effect that the airstrip was constructed on public land, that once completed the airstrip will be handed over to Civil Aviation Authority of Botswana (CAAB).
Several years after its completion, the airstrip is still to be handed over to CAAB. Morupisi is highly compromised and has no statutory power to conduct such a complex politically-charged case involving his former boss.
Currently, the PSP is still to clear himself from an alleged corrupt relationship with Capital Management Botswana in its dealings with Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund (BPOPF). Morupisi was the Chairperson of BPOPF.
As if this was not enough, some rogue elements associated with the Directorate of Intelligence and Security are alleged to have attempted to steal his car that was under the custody of investigators from Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) to kill the case.
More importantly, as the head of Public Service, Morupisi is still to account for P350 million stolen from the National Petroleum Fund and P450 million from the Road Levy.
We are seriously concerned that an alleged corrupt person can be tasked to catch another alleged of similar misdemeanour.
There are persistent allegations that other public infrastructure may have been constructed on land belonging to the Khamas.
These include the State House and Bank of Botswana. The allegations will not go away until they are fully investigated by a competent and independent agency.
Botswana Congress Party will not rest until the Mosu scandal is fully accounted for.
We reject the shoddy report doctored by the Ombudsman, Augustine Makgonatsotlhe. In fact we are in the process of getting the report nullified lest it set a bad precedence.
*Kesitegile Gobotswang (PhD) is the BCP vice president