The Public Relations Officer of the Botswana Police Service, Assistant Commissioner Christopher Mbulawa, is mum on whether they have obtained spy equipment used to intercept private conversations after their first attempt to get the equipment failed.
All he could say on the issue was “If there is anything we need to tell the public, we will do so,” is all Mbulawa would say, declining to say whether or not he did not think the public has a right to know.
However, sources say that the equipment was bought immediately after the first attempt had failed; they say the equipment is already operational.
“The machine is operating as we speak; it is only that they do not want us to know about it just like it was in the past. Remember we only came to know about the equipment after there was a lawsuit of P10m for breach of contract by Dukef Holdings who had supplied the equipment. Had there been no such lawsuit, we might have not known about the equipment,” said the source.
At the height of the lawsuit by Dukef against the Botswana Police Service, former Deputy Commissioner, Kenneth Kapinga, had defended the decision to have the equipment saying that it was needed to fight organized crime. He also said that organized crime is run using high technology equipment and that to effectively deal with the problem such equipment is needed.
The former deputy Commissioner also said that all police forces around the world have such equipment as it is needed to keep up with organized crime. He denied fears that it might be used against opposition political parties.
