Cyril’s emissary off to Botswana

President Cyril Ramaphosa has sent Intelligence Minister Ayanda Dlodlo as his envoy to Botswana amid the controversy surrounding businesswoman Bridgette Motsepe-Radebe.

The Botswana government confirmed in a statement President Mokgweetsi Masisi was to meet Dlodlo yesterday.

The statement was posted on Masisi’s official Twitter page.

However, prior to the confirmation by the Botswana government, Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Khusela Diko, denied an envoy had been appointed.

“The president has not and has no intention of appointing an envoy to Botswana in relation to the cases involving Radebe,” she said.

Diko said no minister has been tasked to deal with the matter.

Botswana had approached AfriForum to assist it in tracing millions of pulas allegedly laundered from the country.

Botswana’s director of public prosecutions, advocate Stephen Tiroyakgosi, last week bemoaned the lack of response from South Africa’s department of international relations and cooperation after its request for mutual legal assistance in the matter.

Motsepe-Radebe is implicated in allegations of money laundering.

Last week, the Botswana government announced it had enlisted the services of AfriForum’s Gerrie Nel to get the department of international relations and cooperation to respond to its request made last September.

The move by Gabarone is expected to cause diplomatic tensions between it and Pretoria.

Speaking to City Press, Motsepe-Radebe had challenged the Botswana government to “produce evidence that such a large amount of money left the country in the first place and how and if the Reserve Bank of Botswana has no records of that”.

She also bemoaned the fact that the names of her relatives – Ramaphosa is her brother-in-law and Patrice Motsepe is her brother – come up whenever the case is mentioned.

Motsepe-Radebe has denied the accusations.

She said she would “welcome the South African government assisting the Botswana government with its request for mutual legal assistance … These allegations are harmful to my reputation and to all the other citizens that have been referenced in the affidavit”.

Late last year, she was named as a cosignatory in two South African bank accounts holding more than R170 billion allegedly stolen from the Botswana government.

Nel told the media that: “Money originating from the Bank of Botswana was illegally laundered through various international accounts and pertinent to this particular account, $48 billion (R829 billion) found its way to bank accounts in South Africa.”

– News24 Wire