We are almost a year since last year’s general election. Yet we are still at ground zero with more of the same, generally speaking, still entrenched. Put differently, the needle has hardly moved significantly if it has hence the current state of affairs. Like some have said to which I concur, there is no clear, coherent plan from His Excellency the President or a roadmap as some call it. As the man entrusted with the ultimate responsibility of ensuring that what should go right for Botswana does so in terms of identifying problems and providing solutions thereto, it is not only fair but correct that the buck stops with him. It should be remembered that with all that the President ran with during his maiden swearing in on 1 April 2018 and the subsequent campaigning towards the 2019 general election, not only were members of his party satisfied with a variety of promises he made but the undecided voter as well. The jury is not far-off I want to imagine. Should the recent unfolding events at the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Governance and Oversight be anything to go by, it tells all and sundry that the needle has hardly moved like I have already observed. All this because the President has neither shown his inner nor outer convictions that Botswana’s oversight institutions are under a new pair of safe hands.
The state of the country’s corruption, prosecutorial and intelligence agencies are, put mildly, deplorable if not pathetic. The revelations at the Governance and Oversight committee last week by the Director General of the Directorate of Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) Rre Tymon Katlholo on the P 100 billion scandal is jaw dropping. It emerged at this committee though it is neither shocking nor surprising (as it has been the case before), that the said agencies are at best working in silos and at worst, seemingly serving political interests. Anything that could horribly go wrong with the P 100 billion scandal which on the face of it, does not have head or tail, has actually gone horribly wrong. Rre Katlholo is extensively quoted by various media outlets on his discomfort with regard to how the P 100 billion scandal was handled. To him, and according these media outlets, there is no basis on what is available for the matter to have reached the courts of law in the first place. Yet, there are professional men and women of repute (or so I believe) who shouldn’t have allowed the deplorable and pathetic status of this case to have reached its current quagmire. Only one thing should be deduced from the quagmire: that other interests far away from the criminal nature of this matter as purported but unintelligently so, were pursued. I have read the affidavit of the lead investigator in this matter from the Cheryl Blair report released to the public not so long ago. I’ll tell you what: the affidavit must rank as one of the worst documents to be submitted in court under oath. How did this affidavit pass through the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions let alone those who are next to him in rank in that pathetic state?
Given the fact that DCEC briefs the President on cases it investigates owing to the prevailing legal framework, it goes without saying that the frailties and shortcomings of this case (assuming such were not hidden from the President) would have emerged. Apart from the briefing, I want to believe the President would have sought advice from the many advisors at his disposal in order to ensure that the agencies undertake their mandates without any serious dereliction of duty as it appears to be the case in the case in point. On the basis of the above, the President has failed to be a source of the solution to this glaring problem in the P 100 billion scandal given the damage in whatever form it has caused the country. It is not far off to conclude that the solution is in short supply because these agencies are now seen as serving the President’s personal political battles. Remember this case took the centre stage in earnest just before the 2019 general election. Knowing the deteriorated relationship between the President and his predecessor, it is fair to suggest that the P 100 billion case was a political tool to endear voters to the President more than anything else.
As if the foregoing was not enough, the revelations of the Ombudsman at the same Governance and Oversight committee with respect to the untouchable nature of Directorate on Intelligence and Security Services (DISS) Director General are more revealing if not startling. And not that it is anything new. At the heart of the Ombudsman’s frustrations and discomfort is the fact that the Director General was reported to his office for maladministration and abuse of office. The Ombudsman is quoted to have said at the Governance and Oversight committee appearance that ‘We could not continue with that particular case because my (Ombudsman) Act bars me from looking into those kind of issues because these are matters of national security….National security, yes, they (DIS) will just put it that way anyway, and these are the problems….Here we lack structures that are cited in the DIS Act that can act as oversight bodies of the DIS. But they are not even functioning now. The Tribunal and even the parliamentary committee are no longer functional.’ Clearly, it is glaringly discernible that there are problems in the oversight bodies, structurally owing to the legal framework under which they operate or otherwise. Like I have said above, these are no new issues that have come to the fore after the President’s assumption of power. At this point in time, the President should have in my view, acted decisively to address the operational fissures which seemingly, are at the core of the tensions or discomfort in these agencies. He has not offered any solutions so far and he doesn’t appear regrettably, that he will do so anytime soon.
It should be remembered that part of the tension in these agencies is the fact that the Director General of DIIS has been elevated salary-wise above those of other agency heads who ordinarily, are at par. In this regard therefore, he feels he can run roughshod over his counterparts. The President should have foreseen the ‘unintended’ implications of elevating the DCEC Director General at the exclusion of his counterparts. As it stands, the DCEC Director General has become a super Director General who even strays into the operational mandates of other agencies without any restrictions. It is an open secret that this Director General has somewhat, spoiled and compromised the investigations on the P 100 billion matter assuming without conceding, that the theft of that bounty ever took place. Instead of foreseeing the inherent possibility of tensions and discomfort by elevating the DCEC Director General’s salary, the President went ahead nevertheless and did it.
Oversight institutions are key to the observance and nurturing of democracy, the Rule of Law, accountability and transparency among others. It is indisputable that these institutions are as is, seriously compromised and circumvented in one respect or the other. I argue very strongly that instead of the President ensuring that oversight institutions function in sync for the ultimate public good, he is at the centre of manifesting the silo function of the same. It is within the power and authority he derives from his oath of office among others, to be the problem solver instead of being the problem creator. It is evident from the Governance and Oversight committee revelations that the Director General of DCEC and the Ombudsman are not happy with how the Director General of DIIS is running roughshod over them in particular and other agencies in general. With the status quo, it is only fair and reasonable to conclude that the DIIS is running the President’s political interests. Until he meaningfully reforms these institutions, they will continue to lose public confidence here and elsewhere. I am prepared to be persuaded otherwise as always. Judge for Yourself!
Once again, I beg you cap in hand, to observe and implement Covid-19 health protocols. We are not out of the woods as yet.
