Specially elected Member of Parliament, Unity Dow’s affidavit in the case in which she is a defendant against a law suit that she cyber-bullied a Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) agent comes across as more political spin than legal defence.
This emerges from the plaintiff, Botho Seboko’s answering affidavit, which projects Dow’s founding affidavit as more slight of hand to harness public misgivings against President Mokgweetsi Masisi, Minister of State Presidency Kabo Morwaeng and DIS Director General Peter Magosi than legal defence to clear her name.
Seboko’s answering affidavit suggests that Dow who is the defendant in the law suit was long on muckraking against the powerful trio and short on proving that he is the notorious France Museveni.
Dow’s decision to rope in suspended Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) Director General Tymon Katlholo whose case against the state has its share of mud-slinging may also turn out to be a PR goof as it suggests a pattern of political muckraking against Masisi and Magosi.
In the latest papers filed before High Court judge Zein Kebonang, Seboko insists that “I’m not France Museveni. In my case, this application is not about France Museveni but about the respondent.” Seboko states that the law suit “is about the acts of cyber-harassment and cyber stalking and offensive electronic communication by the Respondent (Dow) against me, for which I ask for a restraint order from this honourable court.”
And so far, Dow has neither provided anything to prove that Seboko is France Museveni nor denied that she cyber-bullied him. Instead, she went off on a tangent to attack Masisi, Morwaeng and Magosi.
In his answering affidavit, Seboko accused Dow of turning “this case into a game, and she enjoys playing the game.”
He said Dow is unsure of her target “but is merely shooting in the dark with the hope she hit her target.”
Seboko admitted that, “I am employed by the Government of Botswana. But I deny that Dow was communicating with me in that capacity.”
“The respondent (Dow) was targeting me for scorn, cyber-harassment and cyber-stalking on her erroneous belief that I am France Museveni. The respondent literally insults me. Does the respondent suggest that if I am a government employee then she is at liberty to insult me,” said Seboko.
Responding to Dow’s complaints that she and her family are “a victim of France Museveni and slander” Seboko said; “We offer our sympathies to the respondent, her family, friends all those affected.”
“All I ask is for the respondent to cease and desist from subjecting me to cyber-harassment and cyber-stalking and offensive communication.”
According to Seboko, “Indeed, at the commencement of the present proceedings, I politely asked the respondent to desist from subjecting me to cyber-harassment and cyber-stalking and offensive electronic communication.”
He said after he filed the present application on “01 September 2022. The respondent continues to send unwelcome WhatsApp messages to me.”
“These messages bear the respondent’s number. The respondent screenshots Facebook posts by Museveni and send them to me through WhatsApp with a note; ‘This is sent to you in your official capacity.”
Seboko said; “This is cyber-bullying, albeit a veiled one.”
Seboko said if Dow is a “respecter of rule of law as she claims, one would have thought that she will hold her horse and allow the court to decide this matter rather than take the law into her own hands as she does.”
Seboko also called on Dow to “lodge a counter-suit as she threatens. Surely it will be as baseless as claims she makes in her answering affidavit.
“I repeat that I’m not France Museveni. I have no power or control over France Museveni. I do not know France Museveni. But I hold a Facebook account. I know about the posts by France Museveni on Facebook.”
He further indicated that; “I hear discussions about France Museveni on the streets in Botswana. He is indeed a controversial interlocutor in public discussions. There is no basis for the claim by Dow that France Museveni is part of the DIS or any government agency for that matter.”
He said, “Clearly, the respondent is on a wild goose chase and wants to involve me in that.”
“The respondent cannot convince herself that I’m Museveni when she states that, “The applicant and Museveni’ seek to protect what they consider to be in the interest of President Masisi, Peter Magosi and the DIS.” Seboko added that, “Clearly, by using the conjunctive word ‘and” the Respondent implicitly admits that I and Museveni are two different people.”
Even assuming without conceding that “I am France Museveni,” Seboko the Respondent has no right whatsoever to send me such obnoxious, insulting and abusive messages.”
To do so, is to take law into her own hands, something that is totally unacceptable. I’m not France Museveni. Neither do I have any connections with him in any capacity. The respondent does not offer any basis for whatsoever for her basis that I’m France Museveni,” said Seboko.
