The Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) has pinned the cause of feud between itself and the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) to the words uttered by its former Director General – Isaac Kgosi during his arrest in January 2019.
While a feud between the DIS and DCEC is now an open secret, a lead investigator Jet Mafuta at the DIS claims that it was Kgosi’s “I will topple this government” which necessitated a marathon investigation that resulted in the DIS going after highly classified.
“Law enforcement agencies were alarmed by these utterances and subsequently search and seizure warrant was obtained to establish whether Mr. Kgosi had the capacity to topple the government.
Mafuta says a task team compromising of DIS, Botswana Police Service, DCEC and the Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS) was set up to execute the warrant. “The seized firearms and ammunition were handed over to Botswana Police for further investigation. Almost two years went by with nothing happening and sometime in December 2020 Mr. Kgosi filed an application with the High Court for the release of the firearms seized at hi premises in 2019. It was only then that the DIS took up the responsibility to investigate the matter……,” reads part of Mafuta’s answering affidavit.
In November 2021 Mafuta told the court that during the search the following firearms and ammunition were seized from Kgosi, 300 rifle serial number 710-95602 , 12-gauge double barrel shot gun serial number 050544, 9mm Jerico Pistol with 2 magazines, 14A, 30/06 rifle serial number C700521Bruno, .308 rifle serial number 3433854, O/U shotgun 12g serial number 09137NP13153, 9mm pistol serial number U-857992, combination 12/76 and 3006 serial number 4/86664 4R 0$838 , .50mm pistol serial number 41201234 and 12 gauge shotgun serial number 09137NP153.
He said other items that were discovered include.308,(7.62X51) PMP Brown Box total 100 rounds , .300 win magh PMP /Pro-Amm Blues & White Total 64 rounds, 9mm(9X19mm) total 195 rounds, 9mm(9×19 mm) Seller & Bellot Green & Red Boxes total 250 rounds, 12 gauge shot gun rounds maximum royal Rio, (00buck LG/some SG) total 20 rounds, 9mm Luger (9x 10mm) and Sellier & Bellot total 37 rounds.
Mafuta’s recent answering affidavit comes after DCEC Director General – Tymon Katlholo told the court last week that the corruption busting agency is currently conducting investigations involving some officers of the DIS and some of these officers are alive to these investigations.
Katlholo, who approached the High Court through an urgent application, made some serious allegations against the DIS detailing how at least five national projects worth billions of Pula were cancelled by some high-ranking officials of the intelligence agency under the pretext of national security so that they could solicit bribes.
“Our investigations have thus far revealed that such offers have: corruptly caused stoppage of five projects, under the pretext of national security threat investigations ostensibly to mask the solicitation of bribes in the said projects,” he said.
Mafuta refuted such allegations saying the DIS is not on a mission to stop such investigation but rather wanted to know if Kgosi has the capacity to topple the government.
“As the lead investigator I have no interest in the files relating to DIS officers who are being investigated by the DCEC…”, reads part of Mafuta’s answering affidavit.
Mafuta accuses Katlholo of deliberately misleading the court into believing that the motive behind the sealing of the DCEC offices was to access information relating to the investigation of DIS officers with the intention of tampering with it. Mafuta also maintains that Katlholo wanted to snatch an order behind DIS’s back to cause alarm both to the agency and the public.
