Justice Kebonang recently recused himself from a case involving the DIS and former top investigator of Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC), Tsholofelo Bareetsi, who is suing the State for defamation. In a detailed judgment in which Justice Kebonang states his reasons for recusal, he says he worries about his safety especially against the alleged government 'mouth piece', Francis Museveni. “I have decided to remove myself from this case to protect myself from the DIS onslaught that would no doubt follow, benefit AG and DIS. I have no energy to participate in it or subject the respondent to it,” he said.
Justice Kebonang explained that although there is no legal basis for his recusal and that the application is merit-less, the fear he has of the DIS is not without basis nor is it an unreasonable one. In the judgment, he reveals that reporting the DIS to the police has been the catalyst for the conduct of the AG and the DIS. “The grounds for the request for recusal, as set out in Grenorrah Begane's affidavit, the Chief State Counsel, filed on behalf of the AG and the DIS, is that the complaint I filed not only brought into question the integrity of the DIS and the AG but also suggested that I considered the AG and the DIS as “threats to my judicial position" and "at worst I see the DISS as potential killers'', he further said. He stated that for those reasons, they contended that they have reasonable apprehension of bias and that in support of the application for recusal, the AG and the DIS filed a supporting affidavit from the Botswana Police Service (BPS), an institution that is or was to investigate the complaint he had filed. The judge pointed out that it was clearly evident that the complaint filed will never be properly investigated as the police have shockingly taken sides with entities they were to investigate. “Talk of institutions being compromised! Coming back to Begane's assertions, he contends that as soon as I reported the DIS and highlighted the Attorney General's involvement in the DIS criminal scheme, I lost jurisdiction to preside over all cases involving either the DIS or AG,” he said.
