Motiganz Botswana director, Mordehay Dayan, was nowhere to be seen as he was due to appear for mention before Magistrate Monash Ndlovu at the Broadhurst Magistrate Court, together with co-accused, Personnel Manager Clifford Mogomotsi and Charles Chalashika of the Botswana Power Corporation’s Loss Control Unit.
The trio are charged with stealing power from a BPC source. According to the charge sheet, Dayan and Mogomotsi … “on the 09th July 2013 at or near Motiganz in Block 3 Industrial in the Gaborone Industrial District acting together in concert corruptly gave Charles Chalashika, an employee of the Botswana Power Corporation, the sum of P30 000 on account that he allows them to upgrade supply of electricity illegally and continue to steal electricity.”
Presenting to the court on the reasons for Dayan’s absence, Attorney Unoda Mack of Mack Bahuma Attorneys said the defendant had gone to South Africa for Chemotherapy but the prosecutor, Seeletso Ookeditse, had none of it.
Ookeditse wanted to file a warrant of arrest for the Israeli national.
“We will contact Interpol to help locate his whereabouts,” she insisted. Mack explained to the court that there is no reason to believe the defendant could have fled given his business interests in the country. “He is a businessman who has a vested interest in this country …I do not understand why the prosecution would insist on a warrant of arrest,” he said.
But after a short recess that was characterised by a heated debate outside the court between the two lawyers and Superintendent Sergeant Marapo of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) the three agreed to withhold the warrant pending another mention date.
Magistrate Ndlovu set the date for August 26th and released the co-accused on P5000 bail each.
Ironically, it was Chalashika who told The Sunday Standard in an inquiry earlier in April that they were not aware of any fraudulent dealings between a BPC employee and Motiganz Botswana.
“The company has once been found to be stealing electricity from one of our sources and were charged accordingly. We will investigate again to ensure they do not repeat the same offence,” he told this publication then.
Mogomotsi had also refuted claims that the company was stealing electricity from a nearby Botswana Power Cooperation source to power their production plant, bribing a BPC employee and employing his daughter.
