The Director General at DCEC (Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime) is a man in a hurry.
He does not have a lot of time left on his contract.
Just over a year or so.
Even then, a senior government official says Katholo might still not be allowed to see his contract through. He might just get sacked.
Apparently DCEC is in the middle of multiple and simultaneous high profile investigations on some key and powerful officials in government.
And as is to be expected, they are pushing back very strongly.
If he is sacked that would make Katholo the fourth Director General to leave DCEC in four years.
Sacking a DCEC Director General is a big deal. Or it should be.
When that happens, invariably there is always a public relations blowback involved.
The sacking is also always accompanied by a groundswell of public doubt and cynicism.
Invariably, it is always the appointing authority that loses.
Too many commentators have argued for the position of DCEC Director General to be given security of tenure. This is so that the incumbent does not get sacked every time he goes after powerful interests in his or her investigations.
The Masisi government has lost substantial moral authority over the high turnover of DCEC chiefs in quick succession. They have also lost substantial political capital as a result.
By the time Joe Mathambo was pushed out of DCEC, many people were already dead set convinced that government top guns were up to something not entirely clean.
Events at DCEC are in the view of many, a self-inflicted wound. Asa result is little to no appetite for government sympathy.
Appointing authorities are well aware that there is no stability at DCEC. In a big way they are also responsible for that instability.
Things are not looking good. The risks for this otherwise important institution are leaden.
In the main it is the national security that is at risk.
Katholo has more recently been a target of social media insinuations – accusing him among other things of prematurely and inappropriately, one may add, closing down corruption investigations against former minister, Unity Dow.
Evidence so far made public shows that Tymon Katholo was not even at DCEC when the two separate investigations on Dr Dow happened or when they were closed.
That is beside the point.
What is baffling is that neither the Permanent Secretary to the President nor the President has come to DCEC and Katholo’s defence.
Nominally, DCEC is under the Minister for Presidential Affairs. He too has not seen it appropriate to clarify matters on behalf of DCEC and Katholo.
Katholo’s current tour is the second as Director General of DCEC.
After his first tour, three Directors General served after him, before he was called back to come and rescue the situation and as it were, stabilize the ship.
I have always felt it was a huge strategic mistake on his part to agree to rejoin DCEC.
The public service today is totally different from when he last left it.
He has come back into a DCEC that is weaker and structurally polarized than when he left it.
Today there is much less political will to fight corruption than was the case when he headed DCEC investigations that went after then Debswana managing director Louis Nchindo and the Executive Chairman of PPADB (Public Asset and Disposal Board) Armando Lionjanga.
But more crucially, Katholo has rejoined a public service that has little attachment to ethical propriety and totally bereft of espirit de corps.
Yet still that means nothing to those who want to undermine not only him but also the DCEC.
Ultimately the intention is to isolate Katholo, distract him and plant seeds of public doubt on him.
That is a tall order. It might also be a tactical mistake.
Katholo is old school.
He is still an investigative police officer at heart.
He is systematic and is not easily intimidated.
He does not want to be part of the deceit.
More crucially, he is unlikely to give in to what smacks of blackmail.
“I do not follow people. I follow the evidence,” he has said to me in a previous interview.
If it is true that DCEC is investigating some members of the establishment, then Katholo can expect more, not fewer such hostile attacks going forward.
Those attacks will double down especially if charges become more likely.
The worst scenario [and nothing is more chilling] is that Katholo might still get sacked.
And given what has happened to the previous DGs at DCEC, that too is not inconceivable.
Sacking Katholo would be a wakeup call.
Sacking him will present a fundamental change.
Such a decision will sink the already low morale among a majority of officers at DCEC.
It would spell more chaos at DCEC and – we can be certain – a further loss of public faith on the institution.
It is possible that DCEC might never recover from such a decision.
Owing to government’s persistent lack of demonstrable commitment to fight corruption, the position of DCEC Director General no longer carries same weight and prestige like it used to.
Sacking a DCEC director general does not seem to be a big ideal for this government.
The biggest loser from sacking Katholo would like we have pointed out be President Mokgweetsi Masisi.
With the departure of Katholo, what little remains of the president’s credibility to fight corruption will be irredeemably lost.
As pressure mounts on Katholo so too it does on the president.
Some of the staff at DCEC fear for the future.
They say the omens are looking pretty grim.
In another astonishing turn of events, Katholo has been accused of passing business to TYDO – a private company he formed after retiring from DCEC, now run by his son.
It is unlikely that the people fermenting public anxieties around Katholo even believe their propaganda.
The trouble though is that such propaganda is counterproductive.
The propaganda diminishes the office more than it does Katholo’s reputation.
But that is beside the point. By hook or crook, everybody is out to save their skin.
The trouble for Katholo’s detractors is that there will not be much benefit in trying to undermine him.
He is unlikely to resign and totally unlikely to retreat.
He will keep chipping on – one small piece at a time.
This is because he is a man of conviction. And he is no pushover.
Katholo is neither Bruno Paledi nor Joe Mathambo – two former directors general that were summarily sacked.
He is like a pit bull. Once he grips, he doesn’t let go easily.
The biggest mistake was for anyone to assume that once appointed Katholo would become a lapdog.
He is fiercely independent.
He is obsessed with justice and fairness.
And he believes no one should be above the law.
For now sacking him is not fait accompli.
In fact it is a bridge too far.
It will simply cause too many people to start asking themselves too many questions.
Corruption is infectious. Compared to the era of former president Ian Khama, events surrounding Katholo’s tenure at DCEC prove that today might actually be the same like yesterday’s.
In other words the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Botswana still has a foundation albeit a fragile one on which to relaunch a campaign against corruption.
That foundation is based on a solid past – a past that has always clamoured for fairness which is of itself antithetical to corruption.
But there has to be political will.
In a previous interview, Katholo said to me that corruption has a way of always fighting back.
How prescient!
Botswana’s fight against corruption has suffered big setbacks in the recent past – starting with the presidency of Ian Khama.
Khama had a soft spot for corrupt people, especially those within his inner circle.
For Mokgweetsi Masisi the jury is still out.
He cannot however indefinitely hedge his bets.
Whether Katholo stays or goes we are not too far away from learning just where the president really stands. One thing is for sure; going into a different place is an option the president can ill-afford.
