What did the Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services (DIS) know and when did they know it? This is the question on most people’s lips as it emerged this week that the DIS agent who allegedly gunned down her colleague in the line of duty last year and framed a Zimbabwean immigrant for the killing is likely to be charged with a lesser offence of giving false information to investigators.
Investigators spent weeks trying to unravel a non-existent murder by Zimbabwean Blessing Mukweni. The Zimbabwean immigrant accused the state of conspiring to protect the DIS agent and treating him as acceptable collateral damage by trumping up charges against him. Mukweni was later deported, raising questions against the DIS integrity.
The Minister of Justice, Defence and Security, Dikgakgamatso Seretse, last year told the media that he was baffled that Mukweni had been deported when he had a pending murder case.
“I have asked for a report on the investigation because he was sent back by the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs. But I also want a report on how a person accused of murder can be sent back. So I am to receive a report to that effect,” he said.
Speaking to the Sunday Standard in Harare last year, Mukweni said Botswana government officials had offered him money to silence him. He told the Sunday Standard that he met with Botswana ambassador and a Political Counselor at the embassy where the offer was tabled.
“They told me that the Botswana government is offering me 5 million pula in cash to have the case dropped. The money had several conditions attached to it. But I outrightly rejected it,” he said. Mukweni said he was told that before accepting the money, he would have to first sign an undertaking not to return to Botswana to testify against the state.
Sources close to the investigations say evidence so far gathered suggests that the DIS agent shot Moilwa by accident. She was allegedly trying to shoot Mukweni who was allegedly wrestling with Moilwa. Moilwa and the DIS agent had been assigned to arrest Mukweni. At the time of going to press it was not clear if Mukweni would be called to testify.
