Mmegi

Morupisi: The indefatigable fighter

Morupisi. PIC PHATSIMO KAPENG
Morupisi. PIC PHATSIMO KAPENG

Former Permanent Secretary to the President (PSP) Carter Morupisi has been the subject of media attention, and public debate for a long time since coming into the spotlight in 2019 when he was accused of misappropriation of funds belonging to the Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund (BPOPF). Writes Mmegi Staffer MPHO MOKWAPE

But the media attention and public scrutiny intensified by the close of 2024 as he spent his Christmas holidays in jail after the Court of Appeal (CoA) slapped him with a seven-year jail term.

This resulted in Morupisi becoming the biggest newsmaker and when everyone thought the dust had settled with the highest court having decided his fate, Morupisi reared his head again this time around seeking to overturn his jail term.

Not only did he make the biggest news by going to jail as the most senior government official but he put on a challenge against Justices of the highest court accusing them of trying to please the President at his expense.

The debate around Morupisi has been interesting and now it has intensified since he dared to challenge justice. As if closing the year 2024 as the biggest newsmaker was not enough, Morupisi is still holding the fort in 2025.

No one can deny that Morupisi has held the biggest space in the media circles, the courts and the public. The debate had been on Morupisi’s sheer audacity to take head on the judiciary.

In his approach, Morupisi is questioning the line the Justices used in sentencing him to jail, especially what Justice Lakhvinder Singh Walia said which Morupisi viewed as derailing from the law and trying to please the President.

Justice Walia in his reading said that Morupisi as a former senior government official who was convicted of serious offences ought to have been sent to jail.

“I have agonised over the sentence to be imposed on Morupisi bearing in mind that this court would be failing in its duty and seen to be eroding public confidence in the judicial system if he were to escape with a rap on the knuckles. The court would also be seen to undermine the President’s stated desire to see an end to corruption,” he had said.

Justice Walia had stated that the aggravating factor in the case was corruption that was perpetrated by a senior government official, a head of the civil service who was entrusted with the responsibility to prudently husband the financial resources of Batswana.

He said in the general run of things an effective custodial sentence would have been expected but the trial court’s imposition was the fine and that is where the material of misdirection occurred.

“Every sentence especially where the appellant as it is in the case here, is convicted of various distinct corruption-related charges, reflects a complex case of numerous and various factors and certain difficulties. It follows that in such a case, a trial court must carefully evaluate matters such as public interest, the nature of the offences committed, the convicted person’s circumstances and the circumstances under which the offences were committed,” Justice Walia had stated.

It was the words, “The court would also be seen to undermine the President’s stated desire to see an end to corruption” that irked the former PSP more as he took offence that the court was trying to play to the gallery of the President at his expense.

This was the catalyst that totally revived Morupisi’s case throwing him back into the spotlight and daring to show the Apex court bias.

While he was given grace by the High Court and released from jail on reasons that the Apex court was constitutionally wrong to use those words against Morupisi, his case is far from over.

With the State currently appealing the decision of the High Court, Morupisi will remain the newsmaker of the year 2025 given his back and forth to the courts of law.

Also, his way of not sparing anyone when making a point has been making headlines; recently he filed an application seeking to chase Justice Mercy Garekwe from his case calling her “biased”.

According to the embattled Morupisi, he had hoped the Court of Appeal Judge, Garekwe would have done the noble thing and recused herself from presiding over his case on the basis that she was ‘biased’.

Morupisi said he had hoped that Garekwe’s conscience would have pricked her to recuse herself without the unenviable task of launching the recusal application.

“It is incumbent upon every judge to recuse herself or himself from any matter in respect of which he or she is reasonably suspected of bias towards or against one of the parties. This principle is non-negotiable,” he said.

Despite not succeeding in his attempts, Morupisi has had the tenacity to fight since coming into the spotlight in 2019 bearing in mind that criminal convictions and sentences are discussed fiercely in the media and public platforms.

Only is Morupisi’s sheer audacity to fight the judiciary to the bitter end, he remains a headline material but also what the judges often say about him, he will continue fighting as he seems to leave no stone unturned.

Recently, Justice Garekwe said Morupisi’s allegations against judges who presided over his sentencing case when he was sent to jail did not only sting them but did not spare the President, insinuating that he was interfering with the judicial system.

Garekwe stated that Morupisi’s allegations that the Justices presiding over his sentencing ‘mortgaged their conscience to the Executive’ and tried to impress the President, has shredded to pieces and dragged in the mud the integrity of the CoA.

She declared that Morupisi’s allegations made were damning and painted a picture that the President was interfering with the judiciary.

“The weight of the allegations made against the Justices of this Court who presided over the sentencing of Morupisi, and premised on a statement that appears in the sentencing judgment, cannot be overlooked for they indeed paint a dim, damning and alarming picture about the integrity of the said Justices and therefore, the CoA in general,” she said.

As the year progresses, eyes will still be set on Morupisi and his fight to free himself from a custodial sentence that is seemingly hovering over his head.

Meanwhile, Morupisi was released from prison on January 3, 2025 after successfully challenging his sentencing from the CoA on grounds that Justice Walia’s utterance about the President’s desire to ‘see the end of corruption’ were unconstitutional and infringed on him as the judge was only trying to impress the President at his expense.

However, Justice Garekwe in her ruling has already shown that she does not agree with Morupisi’s allegations and has explained that the integrity of the court has been shredded to pieces and dragged in the mud. It remains to be seen how the substantive case will pan out. But, certainly, the Morupisi case will have to find its finality.

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