President Mokgweetsi Masisi has told his officials that he will be waiving his presidential immunity on the National Petroleum Fund saga to allow himself and the judicial processes to subject him to full scrutiny.
He has told a small circle of those officials that he is required to give evidence, he will gladly do that without the legal cover of immunity preserved for a Head of State.
An official who talked to Sunday Standard on condition of anonymity said Masisi has felt personally hurt and touched not just by ongoing insinuations that he might have been part of a racket that stole NPF money, but also more importantly by the effects on ordinary Batswana that NPF saga has had.
“When it comes to fighting corruption the president has told us that he does not want to use the shield of presidential immunity to avoid public scrutiny. He has told us that if he is required to come to court for any reason he will do so without the benefit of immunity. He wants this matter resolved decisively,” said the official.
In a previous interview with Sunday Standard Masisi said he had not benefitted from NPF money and challenged anybody with evidence against him to bring it forward.
He also said when he was vice president he had offered to resign so as to clear his name after the allegations first surfaced.
The then president Ian Khama declined the offer of resignation and said he believed Masisi’s version of events.
But since leaving office Khama has fallen out with Masisi and has been part of a brigade, that includes Leader of Opposition that has been saying part of the money Masisi used to campaign for the position of ruling party Chairmanship was NPF money.
The Leader of opposition, Duma Boko has in the past even table a motion of no confidence on Masisi to that effect.
The motion was however defeated.
The NPF saga has seen a host of socialites including business people, a cabinet minister and a High Court judge dragged before the courts to face criminal charges.
Masisi sympathizers have maintained that as a candidate it could not have been possible for him to know all the donors for his campaign, much less the sources of the money so donated.
This is because he had set up a team of fund raisers who collected money from several well wishers.
