The date stamp on the defiance’s filling notice in the Wilheminah Maswabi terrorism financing case shows that the document was received by the Executive Clerk of the Regional Magistrate Court on 13th December 2020.
Sunday Standard investigations have however revealed that 13th December 2020 was a Sunday and the Regional Magistrate Court was closed.
This intriguing discovery was however missed by the courts and has never been brought up. Welcome to the extraordinary story of Maswabi’s corruption and terrorism financing case: a cloak and dagger tale involving intrigue, astonishing claims and major defence and security outfits at war with each other.
While the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) has publicly denied ever being part of the investigations, the Sunday Standard can reveal that on 26th July 2019 a team led by Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services (DIS) suspended deputy Director General (operations) Colonel Kenamile Badubi comprising Lebogang Moshasho from DCEC, Moses Tshelwane from DCEC, Joao Salbany from DCEC, the late Stephen Rankwane from DIS Pauline Kgoadi from DIS and Robin Mmolawa from DIS met South African hotshot advocate Gerry Nel and his assistant Andrew Leask at Nel’s chambers in Pretoria, allegedly to discuss the cases.
The meeting came up three months before Maswabi was first arrested.
The Sunday Standard has also turned up court records indicating that former DECE Director General, Brigadier Joseph Mathambo appointed Jako Hubona of the DCEC to a Special Task Team that was investigating the Maswabi terrorism financing allegations and the alleged P100 billion heist.
The letter which was written two months after the Pretoria meeting reads in part: “In accordance with the powers vested in me under Section 7 (1) of the Corruption and Economic Crime Act, you are hereby appointed to perform a highly specialized investigation on tasks that will be under the Director Generals Direction….”
Hubona has however allegedly been thrown under the bus and is currently seeking legal assistance from Kgosietsile Ngakaagae.
Mathambo, the former DCEC Director General recently told a local newspaper that Hubona went rogue and drafted the Maswabi charge sheet without authority from the corruption buster.
Mathambo revealed that he had wanted to charge the Hubona with professional misconduct but was instructed not to do it.
Mathambo was quoted by the Voice newspaper saying, “there was time I wanted to charge Hubona for misconduct. In fact, I had already written to him to show cause why he couldn’t be charged. He said he was acting on instruction and I felt at the time that his answer was not good enough.”
The former DG who was redeployed back to the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) at the height of the Butterfly case said he was prevented from charging Hubona by the powers that be.
“Those people who share a surname pressured me not to charge Hubona. Beginning of this year I had actually assembled a team of experts from different ministries to preside over disciplinary hearing but I had to oblige those who share a surname because apart from their instruction, Maswabi’s case was before the courts and I did not want to be seen to be complicating matters.”
“He did not have my authority, as the DCEC we don’t have the mandate to investigate matters of terrorism. We simply don’t have that mandate and I had continuously advised on that, but people chose to undermine my advice,” the former DCEC boss stated.
Hubona, is currently facing over P100 million defamation suits in his personal capacity for allegedly submitting fabricated evidence in an affidavit filed in court implicating former President, Ian Khama, Former spy chief, Isaac Kgosi, South African Businessperson, Bridgette Motsepe and Maswabi in siphoning P100 Billion from BoB to fund terrorism.
