Eric Molale must testify

Kgosietsile Ngakaagae | Friday April 13, 2018 13:20

I only speak of a lost narrative. One the Office of the President (OP) would rather, does not develop as part of the PAC enquiry nor out of court proceedings. They may be lucky with the PAC. Good luck, with the courts.

The OP, or the ministry under which that office and the DIS fall, owes Batswana plenty of answers. There is an effort to lie low and to reduce the so-called NPF saga to a Kebonang, Bakang Seretse, Kenneth Kerekang and Botho Leburu matter. It is an unsustainable effort. As unsustainable as it is immoral and it is a logical absurdity.

Firstly, it is worth recalling that the funds in issue were requested by a department under the OP. That’s settled. Officially, it is the Office of the President OP) that made the request, of course, through the DIS. As a corollary, half the funds were spent by the OP through the agency of the DIS. P118 Million was paid to a foreign company called Dignia Systems, Israel.

I say this, secure in the knowledge that the OP is yet to deny anything the DIS have done or not done. No aggrieved office can keep mum when it is alleged that there has been a theft of P250 million by its Department. As it is, Isaac Kgosi remains the custodian of the very records the DCEC would pretend to need to investigate the matter. And he is said to have had a part in the alleged unlawful expenditure. Give me a break.

Now fancy this. The investigating agency, the DCEC, is under the OP. In essence, the OP is investigating itself, criminally, over alleged unlawful expenditure. Would it surprise anyone, therefore, that not a single soul under this office has been held responsible in anyway, let alone subjected to any form of disciplinary action. Two conclusions are possible if the allegations of unlawfulness are valid. The DCEC are getting their instructions from the Office of the President with regards to how they should do their work or, they are simply afraid to do it. Nothing can explain why the DCEC and the DPP went to the DIS begging for a s elf-exculpatory affidavit from Isaac Kgosi to use against the charged trio.  Why didn’t they  adopt the confrontational approach as they did with the charged trio.

Let us remember that the OP has never denied nor disassociated itself from the now established DIS request. The OP has never disassociated itself from the established request for variation. The Office has never disassociated itself from the resultant expenditure. And they never said that it was administratively or criminally illegitimate.

They never complained about the DIS expenditure. The office has chosen to lie low and to wait out the storm. It has chosen, through its influence to ensure that the true narrative is lost and that only the custodian of the funds suffers public and judicial scrutiny. It has chosen to constrain the matter to a Sadique Kebonang and Khulaco affair. Yes, we are just another moo-hole country.

The PAC enquiry, I have argued, can never be complete until someone from the OP, superior to Isaac Kgosi,  comes to testify on this matter. No judicial enquiry, I maintain, can ever be complete until someone from the OP, superior to Isaac Kgosi, comes to testify on the matter. Anything short of that will be a shameful fraud, and a cheap public relations stunt. I do not seek to undermine the work of the PAC. I simply seek to point them to a reality.

The Ministry that spent the money has yet to be called to account. I hope that the subpoenas are being drawn. Eric Molale and Khama must appear before the PAC to account for Kgosi’s request and to say what his ministry knew of it. No, not Nonofo Molefi, not Mokgweetsi Masisi. Eric Molale and former president Khama are, very relevantly, the people to whom the DIS boss reported who would by virtue of their positions be knowledgeable about the transactions. The PAC enquiry should not end with Sadique Kebonang, Isaac Kgosi and peripheral players.

We know that when there was a major shakeup at the high achelons of the civil service, Isaac Kgosi was retained. We know that Eric Molale was shunted to the custodial ministry. In essence the people responsible for the ministry that requested for and spent half the money are now the custodians of power in all concerned ministries. You have to go past Eric Molale to investigate if his former ministry has any culpability in the matter. You must go past the Office of the President to ask to investigate what they knew. Then you must go to Isaac Kgosi to ask to investigate him.  But you can go to Sadique Kebonang, Bakang Seretse, Kenneth Kerekang, Botho Leburu and rough them up anyday. Clearly, the system now has its ducks in a row. 

It is the PAC’s duty to bust this pretence.  We are yet to hear the big guns roar. Will they?