Had the Attorney General (AG) Advocate Abraham Keetshabe and the Permanent Secretary to the President Mme Emma Peloetletse acted with speed and precision when called upon to do so, the ugly and the untidy spat unfolding before our very own eyes between the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC and the Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services (DIS) let alone the international community, would have been averted so I want to believe. The spin off from this would have been the safety from the paparazzi of highly confidential correspondences between the DCEC and the DIS. What is even more disturbing is the AG blatantly abdicating his responsibilities as the principal government legal advisor by passing the buck on the PSP on a purely legal matter constitutionally within his power and authority to deal with whether he was advised about it on short notice or not. On the part of the PSP, she was alerted by Director General (DG) of DCEC that an ugly conflict had taken centre stage between him and the DG of DIS and that as the administrative head of the two institutions, she acts to facilitate some form of détente between the two. The mere fact that the PSP in particular was made aware of the conflict would mean the appointing authority of the two Directors General being the President and the line Minister would have been comprehensively appraised about the situation. All in all, authority that matters to have been aware of the goings-on between the two institutions and to which it is obligated to have acted, has seemingly failed to do so. The contents of this conversation are based on court papers as submitted by DG of DCEC Rre Tymon Katlholo.
I am not readily aware of how these two institutions report to administrative and political authority of government. But given the importance of DCEC on one hand as an institution mandated by law to investigate and deal decisively with corruption and economic crime given their negative impact on socio-economic circumstances of Batswana, it stands to reason the institution is given top priority in terms of its functioning. On the other, the DIS deserves the same priority given the importance of the role it plays in so far as the national security of the country is concerned. Any tension of any sort between the two institutions would naturally become a serious concern to both the administrative and political leadership. The sheer lackadaisical attitude and conduct of all those concerned to have attended to the tension between the DCEC and DIS is apparent and telling if Rre Katlholo’s court documents are anything to go by.
Correspondence between the two institutions is galore on various social media platforms where one does not have to struggle to access it. In this correspondence particularly from the DG of DCEC, it is abundantly clear that the tension between the DCEC and DIS does not emanate from the events that triggered the raiding and sealing of the office of former per se but that it did so towards the end of 2021 or earlire where the Rre Katlholo says in his supplementary affidavit at para 27 that ‘Commencing towards the end of 2021, the DISS started requesting for the release of numerous officers of the DCEC to attend to the DISS for interview ostensibly on allegation that the DISS was conducting investigation on issues of national security in terms of the Intelligence and Security Services Act’. In the preceding para, he states that owing to his apprehension over the conduct of the DIS towards the DCEC, ‘….I have personally complained about such to the Director General of DISS and the Permanent Secretary to the President as far back as mid-2021’. As soon as he became aware that his offices were sealed, he approached the AG as the government principal legal advisor who then responded in a rather terse manner wherein he was simply absolving his office and himself from the situation Rre Katlholo found himself engulfed in. He said ‘We recommend that you urgently approach the Permanent Secretary to the President for purposes of resolving the matter. Unbelievable!
By abdicating his responsibility to deal with the matter as raised by Rre Katlholo, the AG was setting the scene for highly confidential and classified matters of the State to be at the disposal of every Tom and Harry here and elsewhere. The deleterious consequences of doing so are too ghastly to comprehend as they are obvious chief among them being the incoherent execution of the two institutions’ mandates. In a normal situation, the two would be expected and required to collaborate for the public good while observing each other’s lane. A question should be posed: was the AG not reasonably expected to foresee the dangers of rendering the State naked by abdicating one of his responsibilities whether he agreed or differed with Rre Katlholo’s line of thought in the matter? The same should equally be asked of the PSP (notwithstanding the undisputed fact that the AG threw her under the bus) on the basis that she is the direct supervisor of the two institutions and therefore the two responsible to her. Information as provided by Rre Katlholo’s court documents demonstrates that the PSP was present in a meeting wherein the former ventilated his displeasure on how the DIS was encroaching into his lane and where he sought the intervention of the PSP. Rre Katlholo posits that the PSP promised to address his concerns. It appears the promise was never honoured.
Much as I criticise the AG and the PSP for their commission or omission in the subject matter, I am not oblivious to the fact that the ultimate power and authority to deal with issues like the subject matter is vested in the political leadership particularly that of the President. The AG and the PSP are directly appointed by the President and on that basis, are somewhat beholden to him arising out of their appointments. They cannot in my view and more importantly arising out of the fact that their functions are consequent to delegated authority of the President, take decisions without his explicit concurrence. After all, the executive authority of Botswana vests in the President. The DCEC/DIS spat is no ordinary matter because it has political and other connotations to it. Cursory glance at the history of the DIS vis-à-vis other organisations of the same rank since its founding will attest to this.
A view has been expressed by some that the DIS during the Khama administration and now in the Masisi administration is more about preserving the political interests of the sitting President. This view is supported by the fact that since its establishment, it has never changed its Directors General while the DCEC has had a high turnover of the same. There is no likelihood that the current DIS DG could be fired anytime soon while there is every likelihood that his counterpart at DCEC could be if history with respect to the said high turnover is anything to go by. If this view is correct, it should explain why the powers that be from the AG, PSP, line Minister Rre Morwaeng and the President have not sprung on board to diffuse the tension between DCEC’s Rre Katlholo and DIS’s Rre Magosi notwithstanding the palpable negative impact the tension will have on the country and intenationally.
In the final analysis therefore, it is my considered view that the Attorney General and the Permanent Secretary to the President have, as the first authority called upon to diffuse the tension between DCEC and DIS, abdicated their responsibilities as mandated by their respective offices. The fact that all those who mattered were cognitively aware of the matter at hand but were in the process indifferent in attending to it reasonably suggests other considerations only known to themselves were at play. In doing so, I am left with no option but to conclude as I hereby do, that the rule of law not only in so far as it relates to the subject matter but to other spheres of government is under tremendous siege. Under serious democracies where the rule of law is sacrosanct, those who abdicated their responsibilities as the AG and the PSP appear to have done so here, consequent management would follow with. I am prepared to be persuaded otherwise as always. Judge for Yourself!
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