The Government has moved swiftly to stop the details of a case in which a witness in the Kalafatis case, Joseph Piet, was demanding compensation from the government for severe emotional shock, trauma and distress arising from the murder of John Kalafatis.
It is believed that the Kalafatis case has painted Botswana’s reputation negatively as far as the rule of law is concerned; it is on the strength of those reports that government stopped the case before it could see the light of day.
Piet was in the front seat when Kalafatis was gunned down by four Botswana Defence Force (BDF) soldiers and in the driver’s seat was Ray Gare, another Gaborone resident who is currently said to have fled the country for New Zealand. Gare and Piet were listed as the first and second State witnesses respectively, but only Piet testified in the case and Gare’s sworn statement was admitted in court as evidence.
Late December last year, Ditshwanelo, the Centre for Human Rights, instructed its attorney, Mmusi Kgafela of Kgafela Law Practice who slapped the Attorney General’s Chambers with court papers on behalf of Piet.
The matter was put on the High Court Roll on November 06 last year; a case management conference was billed for December 07.
But sources within the judiciary revealed that the government and Ditshwanelo have reached an out of court settlement in February and the case has since been struck off the roll, as the parties undertake that neither party shall henceforth bring, lodge or pursue any civil claim against the other on the same subject matter and the plaintiff (Piet) shall withdraw the action before the court against 1st Respondent (Attorney General).
Responding to Sunday Standard queries, Attorney General Chambers spokesperson, Lebotsang Mohutsiwa, confirmed that, ”The Attorney General’s Chambers would like to confirm that the Government has reached an out of court settlement with Joseph Piet but the details of the settlement are not open to the public as agreed by the two parties involved.”
Contacted for comment, Kgafela said he was not in a position to comment on the matter.
“As a professional lawyer, I’m bound by the lawyer-client confidentiality hence I’m unable to discuss the matter with you. I can only advice you to check the file at the High Court,” said Kgafela.
According to the minutes of the meeting held by Ditswanelo last year aimed at updating donors about the current human rights issues on which they are engaged in, the human rights organisation revealed that it had received allegations of intimidations against Piet by the security agents. The briefing was also attended by representatives from the EU, French and German Embassies.
The minutes of the meeting also read in part: “Ditshwanelo says there has been subtle intimidation of the witness. They alleged that Piet has been tailed on several occasions. Allegations of intimidations are not farfetched given that the Kalafatis case left the Government seriously bruised, they will therefore not like to see a replay of the case,” said Ditshwanelo.
It is understood that among other things Ditshwanelo also intended to argue that as a result of the Kalafatis murder their client suffered a number of injuries. The client is also said to have further suffered physical and mental hardships as a result of the incident; he is still under extreme emotional shock, trauma and distress.
Meanwhile the killers of John Kalafatis, Gotshosamang Sechele, Ronny Matako and Boitshoko Maifala are free men after President Ian Khama issued a presidential pardon. They were set free after serving only a few months of their 11 years jail sentence. The three men were jointly charged alongside their fellow BDF member, Dzikamani Mothobi, who has long since been acquitted of the murder of John Kalafatis in May 2009.
