Khama’s case against Hubona
On Monday, former president, Ian Khama approached the Broadhurst Police to lay perjury charges against the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) investigator, Jako Hubona in an unprecedented move in the local legal system.
In a 208-page report, Khama alleges that Hubona cooked facts and twisted issues to try and nail him.
Khama is one of the persons implicated by Hubona in an affidavit he deposed for the State in a case against former intelligence officer, Welheminah Mphoeng Maswabi known as Butterfly, on October 28, 2019. Now, Khama who is seeking to clear his name and reputation, wants Hubona arrested and prosecuted for charges amongst others, perjury following a 2020 report issued by Alaco Limited and Omnia Strategy LLP who were collectively instructed by one of the implicated persons, South African businesswoman Bridgette Motsepe to undertake an independent review of various allegations lodged against her and others in legal proceedings against Butterfly.
The report details that a thorough and forensic review was conducted on the affidavit and its supporting documents which indicated that a lot of information was fabricated and that all of the critical allegations concerning Khama were false.
“It is our expert opinion that, while the affidavit is authentic, a substantial amount of the content is a fabrication. From seemingly minor errors and inconsistencies to glaring inaccuracies and falsehoods, the affidavit lacks credibility and offers no reliable evidence to support the allegations against President Khama,” reads the report.
The report also said the extent of the untruths that had been uncovered gave rise to serious questions about the motives behind the affidavit.
The report further detailed findings amongst others, which included scores of typographical errors and other inconsistencies evident throughout the affidavit being account numbers, transaction values, email addresses, name spellings and other data that are inconsistent.
“This suggests at least an ill-conceived and poorly executed work of drafting. It also raises the possibility that these inconsistencies were intentionally placed in the document to obfuscate and frustrate any attempt to analyse and rebut the allegations properly,” further read the report.
Additionally, the report outlined that Moses Pelaelo,the Bank of Botswana (BoB) governor reportedly informed Parliament in November 2019 that no funds were transferred out of the Bank as alleged in the affidavit and that, indeed, the central bank has never held such amount of money in its account in the first place. The report further stated that by all accounts, the affidavit appeared to have been a hastily produced document, riddled with errors and inconsistencies and heavily reliant upon stolen banking data to fabricate false movements of money around the globe while implicating innocent people.
Meanwhile, according to the affidavit in question, it is alleged that in 2008, while serving as Botswana president, Khama arranged for the opening of certain “Special Unit Accounts” at the BoB after which large sums of cash flowed out of at least one of these accounts to various international financial institutions.
Further alleging that a significant amount of the funds flowed into a variety of South African and offshore bank accounts of which Khama was said to be a signatory, were some of the contents of the document. Besides Khama’s demand of charging Hubona, he is also suing the State for P30 million in damages for defamation of character.