The agents, the Director of Legal, Pulane Kgoadi and the Principal Intelligence Officer, Paul Setlhabi, had stated in their previous court papers that they were specifically instructed by Masisi to investigate Magosi. They allege that while the presidential investigations constituted the primary reason for unlawful acts of arrests and detention against them, there existed more that made them undesirable within the DIS.
According to the agents, their fall out with Magosi was caused by a series of clashes which ultimately led to their arrests and detention. They said this allegedly frustrated investigations. “Specifically prior to the afore-going, differences between Magosi and us had already existed. Same concerned several areas disclosed. On account of the same, the Director General no longer had a good working relationship with us and no longer wanted us in the DIS,” they alleged.
In a detailed declaration filed on Monday this week, the agents accuse the DIS of acting in bad faith in that it used the arrests and detentions to frustrate investigations on a senior female officer at the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) who is personally known to Magosi. They added that this included intelligence gathered relating to possible acts of abuse of office, possible acts of fraud and maladministration consequently costing a government parastatal entity significant amounts of money arising from unlawful suspensions of senior officers, particularly at the Botswana Energy Regulatory Authority (BERA) and Water Utilities Corporation (WUC).
“To punish us for raising concerns about Magosi’s employment in the DIS, of an individual whose name is known to them who is a convicted criminal and currently appearing for criminal offences before the courts. The DIS sought to punish us for refusing unlawful suggestions by him to torture and to kill amongst others, former press secretary to the President Batlhalefi Leagajang, former Commissioner of Police, Keabetswe Makgope, and another former intelligence chief now deceased at the time they had been arrested by the organisation,” they said.
The agents further explained that Magosi took offence at the suggestion on the reopening of the Gomolemo Motswaledi car crash investigation when it became clear that more work needed to be done on areas identified as requiring further probing. According to their declaration, the DIS or its Director General wanted to frustrate them in their work due to disagreements with Magosi on operational matters involving high profile cases, which directly affect the Directorate, citizens or the government.
“The DIS or its boss used false investigations against us meant to cover the wrongful acts of its boss. Magosi unlawfully ordered a raid on the DCEC for reasons, which during the conduct of the raid became known to us,” stated the agents. They revealed that the true grounds of the raid had been known by the Director General personally and by the senior officer at the DCEC and that the raid was allegedly for the DG’s personal benefit and was meant to protect his person from possible imminent investigations and/or charges by the DCEC as well as to protect the PSP from possible imminent charges concerning the BPOPF/CMB criminal case.
The disgruntled agents also alleged that they raised concerns over Magosi communication or relationships with individuals in the illicit tobacco and the illegal hard drug ‘katse’ trade. “In a conversation with the attorney of the suspected traffickers who doubled as his (Magosi) personal lawyer, he allegedly promised the lawyer to ‘sort’ us and the team for a raid they were conducting on the traffickers. The lawyer had called him during the process of the raid and put him on speaker in an effort to stop the ongoing raid,” they alleged.
Further in their declaration, they accused Magosi of using arrests and detentions to purge them from the DIS just because they regularly took issue with him over the inept manner in which he allegedly approached legitimate concerns over presidential security. They allege that Magosi regularly undermined Kgoadi’s office by bypassing same and obtaining legal advice on matters concerning the office from outside the office. The agents alleged that Magosi used the investigations to punish them for concerns over the use of a social media (Facebook) pseudo, one France Museveni, to tarnish people's names and to turn the President and the public's opinions against those he hated or disliked.
“France Museveni is known to us having met him in our interactions with the Director General. The individual specialises in whipping up false and scandalous information about people the Director General dislikes or wants to destroy reputation. Whilst exact amounts are unknown to us, France Museveni, has been paid hundreds of thousands of Pula in taxpayer's money by Magosi, in clear abuse of office,” they said. The agents said alongside France Museveni, they also alleged that Magosi uses another individual known to them to forge and fabricate documents in order to make his reports about people he wants to destroy look credible to the President. They alleged that one of the foremost causes of division between them and Magosi regards the conduct of the so called ‘Butterfly case’ alleging that Magosi and the Deputy DG at the DCEC are the architects of the fake ‘Butterfly’ P100 billion theft story.
According to the court papers, Magosi allegedly originated the false intelligence report that commenced the ‘Butterfly’ case and that he paid nearly P10 million for the fake intelligence’ where the report was allegedly generated. “The DIS DG did that in order to lie to the President and to impress him as there never existed evidence of a missing P100 billion at the Bank of Botswana. Even when it was clear that the lies of the second defendant's Director General were unsustainable, he insisted on the prosecution of the fake story which he was able to sustain with the active help of the Deputy Director at DCEC. Far from one of the investigators, Jako Hubona, being the originator of the P100 billion story. Hubona was not and infact protested the hurried manner in which Magosi and Deputy Director on Economic Crime sought to have the case prosecuted,” the agents alleged. The agents pointed out that Hubona and his team of investigators comprising amongst others, members of the Botswana Police Service had, on receipt of the intelligence report, asked for at least three years to investigate the veracity of the report, which request was refused by Magosi and the DCEC Deputy Director.
They also alleged that Magosi would not listen to internal voices at the DIS urging caution and Hubona was made to sign the affidavit on the basis of which 'Butterfly' was arrested and detained under duress and upon false promise that the said Deputy Director at the DCEC had been able to uncover evidence from South Africa affirming the theft of P100 billion, which was completely false.
“When it was clear that the lies were unsustainable, Magosi and the DCEC Deputy Director sought to throw Hubona under the bus when the whole ‘Butterfly’ false case was of their making," the agents further alleged. The agents said Magosi used the said Deputy Director General at the DCEC, who is very close to him, to allegedly undermine authority at the corruption fighting agency and used her as his personal informer on matters in which he has an interest. They further averred in their court papers that it was another point of division between them and their boss that led to an unhappy relationship between them.
