Former Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services Director General, Isaac Kgosi will be brought to court in two weeks and charged with several counts of corruption and embezzlement, in a case that is expected to open a can of worms.
After a long dithering, Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime, DCEC Director General Bruno Paledi and the head of Department of Public Prosecution (DPP) Stephen Tiroyakgosi both believed to be Kgosi’s allies this week caved in to pressure and decided to charge the former DIS boss.
The duo, both appointed inside 12 months of former President Ian Khama stepping down are believed to be sympathetic to Khama and Kgosi and have been accused of dragging their feet on prosecuting the former DIS Director General.
Former President Lt gen Ian Khama is likely to be called in as a witness in a case that is expected to implicate him directly.
The case which is expected to implicate the former president is slated for the Corruption Court which is headed by Justice Bengbame Sechele who is based in Francistown. It is however expected that the Chief Justice Terence Rannowane will either call Justice Sechele to preside over the case in Gaborone, or appoint a panel of judges.
Can of worms
The case has already pitted Kgosi against his successor Peter Magosi whom Kgosi believes was instrumental is ensuring that the case goes to court. Sources close to the former DIS boss have revealed that he intends to get back at Magosi by throwing mud at him. Among other things, Kgosi is threatening to implicate Magosi in the execution of john Kalafatis. Sources who were in the team charged with killing Kalafatis have however told Sunday Standard that Kgosi was the first one at the scene because the DIS was coordinating the operation which brought together members of the BDF Cobra Unit, DIS and Military Intelligence. The then BDF commander Carter Masire told the Sunday Standard at the time that the BDF officers implicated in Killing Kalafatis were attached to the “Botswana Police Service.” Magosi who was then head of the Military Intelligence was only called in after Kalafatis had been executed. A witness told the High Court in Lobatse that after Kalafatis was shot he heard one of the accused saying “call Magosi”.
It is understood that Kgosi also intends to link Magosi with the missing DIS spy equipment. Sunday Standard investigations have however turned up information that DIS records have revealed that the “missing” spy equipment is with the DIS and was in the custody of the DIS even at the time Magosi was accused of taking it. The equipment is however currently not working berceuse its licence has not been renewed.
Former President Lt Gen Ian Khama is also likely to be implicated in the long anticipated corruption case. The DCEC investigations have revealed that Serowe North Development Trust, an organisation set up by former President Ian Khama, was used by the Directorate on Intelligence and Security (DIS) as a conduit for money laundering and secret operations.
This is revealed in a transcript contained in a docket – referred to as DOC/IF/2011/001166 (27) – that the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) opened on Kgosi. The interview on Kgosi conducted by DCEC former directors, Rose Seretse and Don Mackenzie on the 27th of February 2012 lays bare Kgosi’s absolute control of a secret account that was initially used by president Khama for activities of the Serowe North Development Trust. The account, according to Kgosi’s interview, was created in the 1990s when Khama was vice president. But it is not clear why the DIS had to use funds from the “contributions account” to finance its official activities, which include “secret missions” and payment of tax authorities in South Africa. It has also emerged that one of the DIS contractors who was given tender running into millions of pula one Mpenseni Jere was also contracted to build Kgosi’s private mansion in Phakalane and Khama’s controversial residential complex in Mosu.
The case is expected to further divide the already fractured government enclave as Khama sees Kgosi’s prosecution as the final assault on himself. Sources close to the former president say he is convinced the case is aimed not at kgosi but at him.
