With the recent sacking of its founding director general Isaac Seabelo Kgosi, the Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services (DISS) should henceforth do all in its power to redeem its battered image in the eyes of Batswana, including the international community.
This is the only surest way in which the discredited organization can begin to instill public confidence and trust in the discharge and execution of its mandate.
Parliament passed the DIS Act with the honest hope that the security intelligence agency will serve the interests of Batswana without fear of favour, ensuring that their security is not compromised.
The legislature never envisaged that DISS will finally become a law unto itself as it has overtime proved to be the case through its untold misdeeds characterized by extra judicial killings, blanket expenditure without accountability, intrusion of people’s privacy, all in the name of national security.
There will be no justification whatsoever going forward for the DISS to fail to redeem its battered image. From the onset, Batswana were livid to the formation of the intelligence unit as it had become clear that it was intended to usurp the functions that had hitherto been provided by the Special Branch of the Botswana Police Service.
At its inception in 2008, there was hue and cry that the DISS was specifically created to serve the interests of some select people wielding executive power vis-à-vis national interest.
At the time of establishing DISS, Botswana faced no imminent security threats as the existing security agencies had proved their effectiveness beyond doubt especially during the colonial liberation struggle within most southern African countries.
Some Members of Parliament across the political divide expressed their discomfort and uneasiness at the formation of the organization. . The ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) used its numerical strength in parliament to rough rail the Act into law.
The DIS Act was subsequently accented to by the new President Ian Khama, who had just taken over from Festus Mogae on account of the automatic succession constitutional provision.
It was not very long after its (DISS) formation that bits and pieces of the rot engulfing the organization started to crumble out, vindicating the discomfort that especially the opposition legislators had expressed.
As it is often said that new brooms sweep clean, it is now incumbent upon the new DISS director general Brigadier Peter Magosi and his team to get to the basics and dismantle all the rot that made the DISS a rogue institution through its unbecoming misdeeds. Simply put, the ball is now in Brigadier Magosi’s court to clear the mess created by his predecessor.
In so doing, Brigadier Magosi should be always mindful of the perception that most Batswana have formed against the DISS which they view as an elephant in the room which at each and every turn intrudes into their private sphere including unwarranted tapping of their phones without any legal justification.
As much as Batswana will be looking closely at how Brigadier Magosi cleans the mess he has inherited from his predecessor, it behoves parliament to also play its part by ensuring and instituting a holistic review of the DIS Act.
The legal lapses of the Act were exposed when Kgosi refused to answer pertinent questions regarding the National Petroleum Fund saga before the Parliamentary Accounts Committee under guise that the information sought was classified.
Surely if the DISS director general is not answerable to anybody including the President of the Republic and Parliament, the DIS Act is fundamentally lacking in a lot of respects. How does Parliament create an organization that is not accountable to any oversight institution? It is an absurdity of the first order. How can DISS director general not be answerable to a parliament standing committee when it is Parliament that enacted the DIS Act that subsequently led to the establishment of the intelligence services organ?
How sad is it also that the DISS director general is also not answerable to the appointing authority? Government in a democratic state, we have come to know should be answerable to its own people, then how can the country allow one of its own establishments to be above the law as Kgosi made us believe when he refused to answer the pertinent questions that the PAC posed to him during the NPF saga probe.
If all Acts of Parliament are equal as declared by Kgosi during the NPF probe proceedings, parliament should further consider clothing itself with more teeth and enhanced legislative power to perform its oversight functions.
It is an understatement to say Batswana were shell shocked to learn through Kgosi during the NPF saga probe by the PAC that the DISS director general was not answerable to anybody, let alone the executive, presidency and parliament.
This is a serious malady of the highest magnitude that must be immediately corrected needs once and for all.
Batswana from all spheres expressed their disquiet when the DISS was relocated from the Ministry of Defence, Justice and Security to the watchful eye of the presidency under the Ministry of Presidential Affairs and Public Administration.
Was the move predetermined to ensure that DISS remained untouchable as Kgosi has publicly told the nation during his brief appearance before the PAC?
All said and done, the time is now for government to clean all the mess that has become of the DISS. With a clearly defined mandate and good governance, Batswana will undoubtedly eventually appreciate the importance of the intelligence security agency.
