That Botswana is afflicted by run-away levels of corruption admits of not the slightest doubt. Corruption permeates literally every facet of the government bureaucracy and it is rising and spreading at pandemic velocity. Its fountain source presently is the Office of the President. In fact, one can locate its runners and riders with pinpoint accuracy. The most corrupt individual in this country is, undoubtedly, the President, Mr. Mokgweetsi Eric Masisi. He headlines a ruthless and shameless band of looters and thieves. The covid-19 scourge merely served to lay bare the scale and depth of corruption in the highest office in the land.
I make four related observations in this thought piece. First, I give a thumbnail sketch of the features of corruption around the Presidency. Second, I examine the tap roots of this corruption. I observe under this aspect, that corruption is institutionalised and only tepidly denounced by the very laws that should enable the fight against it. I also maintain that the judiciary has burdened the country with a famished and embarrassing jurisprudence that has made the judiciary itself not just passively complicit in, but also an active sponsor of, corruption. Third, I posit that the main institution established to fight corruption, the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) is not only institutionally weak and ineffective but it is being, deliberately, further emasculated and sabotaged in any effort to discharge its statutory mandate. In illustration I will outline two recent very disturbing events and I will conclude by predicting that soon the Director, Mr. Tymon Katlholo, will be sacked and replaced instantly by one Priscilla Israel of the 100 billion Pula infamy. Fourth I shine the spotlight on the main enabler of corruption, the Directorate on Intelligence and Security Services (commonly known as DIS). Here goes.
The Presidency is mired in corruption
When he assumed the office of President, Mr. Mokgweetsi Masisi was as ordinary as they come. He had no tracts of prime land to his name. He was not much of a farmer. He was not this monied guy who can obtain a “loan” sounding in millions from a known financial institution and pay it all off in less than a month. He was not the super-rich guy that he now is. Today he owns tracts and tracts of land across the breadth and dimensions of this country. He has been “allocated” a choice portion of Banyana Farms, by government employees who look up to him for their progression and recognition at work. In the plainest speaking he has allocated this farm to himself. If this is not abuse of office and collusive dealing then nothing will ever be. He has, in the short period of time that he has occupied the seat of President, accumulated so much money and material possessions that he ranks among the super-rich. In the process he has bled the country dry and eroded any faith and confidence in the institutions of governance.
When covid-19 struck, it became for him an opportunity to add to his ill- gotten treasure. His insatiable greed just ran amok. Covid tenders were awarded from the Office of the President in flagrant breach of all otherwise applicable ethical and legal considerations. Fly-by-night companies emerged and were awarded tenders worth hundreds of millions to supply even the most rudimentary commodities at extortionate prices. Fiscal prudence was thrown out the window. Many tenders were doled out, mainly to the Chinese owned companies in situations that defy the most basic logic. No regard was shown to indigenous Batswana owned companies in relation to the mega-projects that were awarded. The country’s economy was handed over to, and shared between Chinese companies and nationals. I have no doubt that even a basic inquiry would expose the impropriety and corruption of all these awards. All the while, the anguish and disappointments of Batswana deepen and have become so acute they are like a powder keg.
The scale of tragedy that resulted from all these failures and disastrous decisions was enormous. We saw the dooming of whole families to a most brutal eradication from the inventory of nature’s creations. People lost loved ones; family and friends. Deaths that could, and should, have been avoided!
The Roots of Corruption
The President conducts himself in the most egregiously unethical manner. His acquisition of Banyana Farms, as well as the allocation of tenders to his family and friends, bespeak a President without even an ounce of shame. The lack of openness and transparency around the award of tenders by the Office of the President provides fertile ground for his impropriety and corruption. In certain other instances he hid behind the DIS to mask and conceal his irregular dealings by invoking the mantra of national security. The acquisition of Tautona Lodge, which came with well over a thousand cattle that to date remain unmentioned and unaccounted for in any discussion of this lodge, were all covered under DIS. The same goes for the premium tourist land in the Okavango. All the justifications or explanations offered amount to clutching at mutually reinforcing strands of folly. Integrity has declined and decayed across the entire government apparatus. Accounting officers are terrified. They are replaced at their slightest insistence on some semblance of proper process. The Ministry of Health and Wellness is peppered and littered with examples. The rest have merely resigned themselves to the compulsive passivity, to secure themselves some reprieve from these temporizing agonies. An unhinged Presidency continues to take the country down a path of rack and ruin.
What does the law say about all this? Well, the simple answer is that the President is placed above the law anyway. He is immunized by Section 41(1) of the Constitution. He acts with impunity. The DCEC has been rendered useless as I will imminently show. The result of all this is an institutionalization and normalization of corruption. The judiciary has also had occasion to probe some alleged improprieties regarding procurement. They have interpreted the controlling legislation when it comes to procurement, under the hand of Justice Lesetedi of the Court of Appeal. This court sanctioned and embraced participation in tender awards by conflicted individuals when it adopted a narrow and denuded understanding of Regulations of the PPAD Act that flew in the face of the parent Act itself. In this way our judges have become complicit in the facilitation of corruption. They hold that the more expansive and potent principles of the common law on conflict of interest have no application in matters of procurement. That is the state of our judiciary. Is it captured by the Executive? To this and other probing questions there are no answers from the powers that be except fudges and evasions.
The DCEC
The DCEC was established in terms of the Corruption and Economic Crime Act (CECA) that came into force on 19 August 1994. As the main tool for combatting corruption, this Act is woefully inadequate. Transparency International offers a very basic but potent definition. It defines corruption as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. The Directorate lacks the expertise to investigate corruption. It also lacks the will to monitor and probe the conduct of public officers who are the main subjects. Take, for instance, the issue of possession of unexplained property under Section 34. It enjoins close monitoring of the sources of income or assets of any person, especially public officers, to ensure that those are not incommensurate with their known sources of income, present or past. Has this provision been enforced? The answer is a resounding No. There is neither will nor capacity to carry out this all-important requirement. On the available evidence the Act has failed to make any meaningful impact against corruption. Instead, corruption has festered and grown to terrifying levels. Ministers and other public officials own and control pecuniary and other resources that can neither be explained nor justified.
Against all these challenges, DCEC is being actively thwarted and frustrated by the Office of the President. Just recently, the Director of DCEC had to contend with the transfer of his then Deputy, Mr. Ernest Mosate, and his replacement with Priscilla Israel without so much as consultation, or prior communication, with him. In addition, four of his officers were served with letters of transfer and sent to other government departments. These officers were engaged in investigations in relation to certain senior public officers including the Permanent Secretary to the President. Their transfer was intended to prevent these investigations. The transfers were withdrawn following threats of litigation by the officers involved. But the result was that the officers involved now know that there are certain bounds they may not transgress. This has had a chilling effect on any investigation they may undertake.
It will also be recalled that this Priscilla Israel, who has now been appointed Deputy Director at DCEC, is the same individual who was involved in the now infamous and blatant lies about a 100 billion Pula grand theft. She is the same individual who was heard in those leaked audio tapes making gratuitous threats against officers of the DCEC. We are aware that no sooner had she assumed the role of Deputy Director than she wrote a letter of complaint to the Minister against some of the officers of DCEC seeking their removal.
And now, here is a prediction that may bear the hallmarks of a prophesy: the Director, Tymon Katlholo, because he is now viewed as too independent and not as malleable as was expected, and indeed demanded of him, will be sacked soon. The idea is to sack him before the expiry of his current contract. He will then be conveniently replaced with Priscilla Israel. The capture will then be complete.
Directorate on Intelligence
The DIS has an overbearing presence in everything that happens in this country. They eavesdrop on the private conversations of citizens outside the law. They interfere in the operations and activities of literally every government department and parastatal. They control the award of tenders, against the provisions of the law. They have a stranglehold on all senior public officials, and the suspicion is inescapable, judging from how the judiciary conducts itself, that they have captured it too. And this capture, in my humble view, goes all the way up to the Court of Appeal. The judiciary has lost all integrity. And in all this, the unsuspecting citizens believe they are free. It reminds me of the apt observation by Goethe, that “none are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free’.
The country is being fleeced and its economy systematically crippled. Public procurement has literally been handed over to the Chinese. Almost the entire outlay for mega projects has been set aside for the Chinese. Our indigenous citizens as well as contractors are left grappling with the raw reality of exclusion, privation and deprivation. The corruption pandemic will not be contained under the present leadership and institutional architecture. It is a lost cause.
