Friday, February 14, 2025

Ombudsman to investigate President

Once again, the Ombudsman will investigate president Khama on abuse of state media.

Information passed to Sunday Standard suggests that the ombudsman will soon institute investigations that may lead the investigators to interrogate President Khama over the abuse of state media.

The complaint was lodged by the Botswana Congress Party a few months ago.

Interviewed by Sunday Standard, the ombudsman, Ofentse Lepodisi, said, “My office has received the BCP complaints,” adding that his office would investigate the matter fully.

“I do not know where the investigations will lead us to but if they warrant us to go to the President we will do so but as you know he is the State President therefore there are professional ways to be followed on how we can obtain information from him because it is not the first time we investigated him,” said the Ombudsman.

He said he was unable to say when the investigations would be complete but was hopeful that they would fast track the matter.

The Botswana Congress Party lodged a complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman, requesting a probe of the state run Television. The BCP accuses President Ian Khama and the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) of abusing Btv.

So far, the ombudsman has written to the BCP requesting evidence of Btv bias towards the ruling party.

What seems to have irked the political party is an incident in which Khama’s long time friend, Thapelo Olopeng, was ‘paraded’ on TV asking BDP members to defend their president against attacks and criticism from the press.

A few years ago, the ombudsman investigated president Khama when he was still the vice president.

The investigations were centered on the usage of Botswana Defense Force helicopters during political rallies but no action was taken against him.

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