Gaborone Chief Magistrate Lot Moroka on Friday ruled that the former Permanent Secretary in the then Ministry of Local Government and Lands, Eldvidges Mhlauli, has a case to answer.
This follows after Mhlauli entered a plea of no case to answer.
Mhlauli is facing charges of abuse of office and knowingly making false statements under oath.
The other charge of official corruption has since been dismissed because the accused person retired.
Passing the ruling, Moroka said that he was convinced that prosecution had proved charges against the accused person beyond reasonable doubt. The main question in this matter, he said, was how a decision was made to give the plot in the now famous River Walk to Eddie Norman and not to Kadimo Oremeng.
When all the information surrounding this allocation is taken into consideration, Moroka said that there is enough evidence pointing that the accused person had a case to answer as claimed by the state, saying there is evidence given by Norman that after he was allocated the plot, the accused person had followed him up and told him that he wanted to be paid because he had helped him acquire a plot at River Walk.
Moroka said after that Mhlauli had then followed Oremeng to his home village in Thabala and told him that he was sorry for having authorized that Norman should be given the plot whilst he knew that it was supposed to be given to him.
Mhlauli further said that after this, he asked Oremeng to launch a case in the High Court against Norman which was to be paid for by an invisible hand. This action, said the Chief Magistrate, resulted in the writing of false affidavits by Mhlauli.
After the ruling was made, the defence lawyer, Van Zyl, informed the Court that he would call his client to give evidence on the matter.
In another corruption case involving a government employee, Gaborone Village Court Magistrate, Mareledi Dipate, set the trial dates for a case in which a quantity surveyor in the Department of Building and Electrical Services, Jennifer Mututo, is facing charges of having allegedly altered some tender documents.
The case will be heard on February 25, 26, and 27, 2008.
