DCEC Boss Ducks Phiri Questionnaire
Monkagedi Gaothobogwe | Monday April 10, 2017 13:47
I got exited thinking that she was finally going to respond to the questionnaire I sent to her office earlier. The questionnaire attempted to get the DCEC high-ranking official’s response after she was accused in various local and South African media for possible abuse of office by local investor and South African-based businesman Simbi Phiri.
The businessman had alleged that the DCEC waged a war against him shortly after he had turned down a request from the DCEC deputy boss’s husband, who is a cousin of Phiri, to have a 30 per cent stake in Khato Civils Botswana.
The questionnaire also sought answers on why it took the DCEC number two nearly four months to respond to the damning allegations against her.
Some of the damaging allegations are that the deputy director received R400,000 money gift from the businessman and a paid R230,000 Eastern Cape holiday packaged for Makgekgenene and husband. The Monitor also wanted her to state whether she had a hand directly or indirectly in causing Phiri to suffer for turning down the Makgekgenene’s request for a 30 per cent stake.
Makgekgenene had given a verbal assurance that by end of business that Friday she would have responded.
But lo and behold, when I arrived at her spacious and executive office that overlooks her boss’, she had a change of mind.
There were no answers to the questionnaire I had sent her.
“I called you face-to-face so I can tell you that I cannot give you the response now, and I didn’t want to do it over the phone,” was Makgekgenene’s first shot.
She reasoned that my questions were too many so she could not finish them. She said she was preparing to go to her cattle post. And I could sense some urgency as she looked at her watch.
I expressed my shock, especially after she had given assurances, even after confirming that she had received the long questionnaire. To which she now says she would only provide opportunity for interview after I had run the rebuttal that they had sent to me.
She accused The Monitor of having written about her without a right of reply and this was now her right to reply and should go alone this week, while the interview could follow at a latter date.
Strangely, just 24 hours earlier, Makgekgenene’s boss, the director Rose Seretse, had, in a telephonic conversation, asked that the questionnaire be revised and the questions shortened to just three. She had also suggested that I could come over and ask her deputy some two or three questions and not those many questions.
The DCEC boss stated that her deputy was in great distress already because of Phiri and she wouldn’t handle the long questionnaire.
I told Seretse that her deputy could pick and choose what she is comfortable responding to, if she is still in distress.
In the morning though, the Friday morning I send the DCEC boss a text message, telling her about the importance of responding to the whole questionnaire.
Seretse would later, via the same messaging platform, inform me that she had forwarded my messages to her deputy. That was Friday morning, hours before that lunchtime phone call from Makgekgenene.
The exchange gets heated up as I share my frustration at the DCEC deputy boss who had somersaulted.
I tell her I’m not going to publish her rebuttal too, after all I never mentioned the DCEC or Makgekgenene by name or title in my story since I was aware that I had not approached her for her side of the story. I repeat that point to her. She chuckled and mumbled that I may have been bought by some people.
When I entered the deputy’s office, I had seen the director in her office. But the Seretse never bothered to pop into the meeting.
The reason could be because the previous night she had said on the phone how she doesn’t want the DCEC entangled in the Phiri controversy, especially with the allegations of the P400 000 cash gift and the holiday package alleged to have been bought for her deputy.
According to the DCEC boss, she may not know who Phiri is but with the claims he has made against her deputy so far, she wouldn’t want another accusation of abuse of power on the part of the DCEC.