Prosecution dumps Oppenheimer

TSHIRELETSO MOTLOGELWA
Staff Writer | Thursday August 19, 2010 00:00

 

Early this week the prosecution had indicated that they would communicate to court whether they needed the De Beers man. On Tuesday, the defence, which has previously argued that Oppenheimer was not interested in helping the prosecution, appealed to Gaborone Regional Magistrate, Lot Moroka, that the diamond magnate and friend of the late Debswana MD, Louis Nchindo, be declared fair game for the defence if the prosecution fails to get him to turn up as their witness this week.

However Ngakaagae told court that after consulting with Oppenheimer they reached the conclusion that they will not need him.

Meanwhile yesterday the court heard current Debswana IT analyst Ackroyd Kwaramba give evidence. Kwaramba was summoned to court by Moroka to assist in explaining the transition the company went through with their IT infrastructure.

The company replaced one server on which a letter alleged to have been authored by Joe Matome relating to the tender for Plot 55720 was stored.

Kwaramba was called after Information Technology systems analyst and former Debswana employee, Paul Ashley Conlon referred to the changes to the system creating questions about the possible effects the move from one server to the next might have caused to the document properties of the letter.

Under examination on Wednesday Conlon described how as a systems analyst at Debswana headquarters he assisted the DCEC investigation by helping print out a screen shot of the said letter. He had been called upon to confirm the authenticity of the documents allegedly found in Matome's computer at the mining company office, relating to the tender for the plot.

However, the defence led by senior counsel Craig Webster argued that the IT system is not foolproof and there was a possibility of other individuals having access to the same documents and tampering with them the way it was purportedly done by Matome.

Furthermore Webster's major contention has been that the security conditions under which the computer access was granted at Debswana prior to 2006 the time when the document was said to have been authored, was such that anyone could have accessed the document and edited it however they saw fit. Webster argues that the screenshot used by the defence could not be trusted as evidence given about some property details on the document are not consistent.

Kwaramba said the document, which had been backed up and then reinstalled should reflect the same properties as the original. However under cross-examination from Webster, Kwaramba conceded that he was not an expert on Microsoft systems and thus could not comment on the meaning of the property readings. 'That will cut our exchange very short Mr Kwaramba,' quipped Webster.

The removal of Oppenheimer from the witness list further narrows the case to a few witnesses and means the two weeks that have been given for cross-examination might be enough.

Moroka has indicated that he will want to conclude the case in the coming three or four weeks. On Friday former Directorate of Corruption and Economic Crime boss Tymon Katlholo will be cross-examined by the defence. Next week the defence will then present its witnesses.

Ngakaagae led the prosecution, assisted by state counsel Gopolang Tlhabologang while the defence consisted of Webster, Paul Farlan and Lawrence Khupe of Collins and Newman.