The Director General at the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) Tymon Katholo has said a barrage of pointed criticism recently levelled against him and the directorate is intended to get the public disillusioned with DCEC.
He said the criticism is unfair and deliberately crafted to mislead the public and get the public turn against DCEC.
A person or persons deploying pseudonyms has been using social media to say Katholo has closed down investigations against Unity Dow – a Member of Parliament and also a former cabinet minister.
Katholo has said such criticism while dangerous in that it could lead to a crisis of confidence on the DCEC, it will personally not deter him to do what he has to do.
There are a number of high profile cases that DCEC is currently investigating, which cases are at advanced stages towards maturity.
Katholo would not comment on any of those, but was open in discussing cases on Dr Dow.
He said he was only discussing the cases because he felt the matter had become that of national interest. Katholo says the directorate had previously investigated Dr Dow for two separate incidents. In both instances Katholo was not at the DCEC.
And in both incidents decisions were taken to close down the files. In one incident an allegation had been reported to DCEC that Dr Down had directed a group of students from Seychelles who were studying at University of Botswana to say at a house owned by her sister.
Investigations could however not come up with any concrete evidence beyond just a coincidence based on the fact that Dr Dow was at the time Minister of Education. And also that she played a key role bringing those students here based on a Memorandum of Understanding signed by governments of Botswana and Seychelles.
A statement deposed by one of the Seychelles students said the group had never had of Dr Dow.
And that they got accommodation from an advertisement.
One Dr Nyepi at the University of Botswana also said in a statement to DCEC investigators that finding accommodation for students from Seychelles was his responsibility. And that he never got an instruction from Dr Dow.
The two statements played a critical role in getting Dr Dow exonerated.
After careful assessment the then Director General of DCEC Rose Seretse closed the docket.
Katholo said in the interview that he only got to learn about the investigation in September last year after one of his deputies had recalled the file from the archives.
Upon inspection, Katholo said there was no new evidence and reached a conclusion that Ms Seretse was right in closing the matter.
He said he was convinced that the matter of Dr Dow had been adequately investigated.
“Clearly my sin has been to endorse an earlier decision by Ms Seretse,” Katholo.
Katholo has previously worked at DCEC before retiring only to be called back by President Mokgweetsi Masisi as DCEC was experiencing a high turnover of Directors General.
He has also said for as long as he is at the helm of DCEC, nobody will be deemed untouchable when it comes to investigating allegations and suspicious acts of corruption.
Another matter that had to do with investigating Dr Dow had in it Limkokwing university and also the International Aviation School.
A matter had been reported that a law firm that Dr Dow started before joining politics was being paid a retainer by Limkokwing University.
Dr Dow was Minster of Education. And the allegation was that she had sold a ploughing field to one Tizza Seduke who was director at IAS.
IAS had asked the Ministry of education to pay all tuition in advance.
When that could not happen IAS had appealed to Dr Dow who reached a conclusion that IAS had a genuine reason to qualify for an exception.
In the end a conflict of interest matter was reported against Dr Dow.
This time it was to be the Director of Public Prosecutions who wrote a lengthy treatise saying had evidence had been adduced against Dr Down did not meet a threshold that could be used to convict her in a court of law.
The director of Public Prosecutions advised DCEC to close the investigations against Dr Dow.
“DPP said there is no prosecutable case. Again I was not there. All these happened when I was on retirement,” said Katholo.
Another issue that Katholo has been accused of not doing enough to investigate has to do with the Khama Brothers and their company, Seleka Springs.
Katholo says nothing is further from the truth.
He said investigations were going on but there were other key countries that chose not to cooperate with Botswana and DCEC.
“It is now over 20 years and the cases have prescribed,” he said.
Katholo has also been accused of taking business to the company he formed after retirement.
This company is called Tydo. He laughs off the allegation.
“I formed that company. I have resigned from it when I rejoined DCEC. You can be sure that when I leave DCEC, I will rejoin Tydo. But to say I give business to Tydo is preposterous,” he said.
